Power Rangers Zodiac
by GazingAtTheStars
Summary: When the evil overlord, the Universal decided to concur Earth the largest team of Power Rangers is called to defend the planet perhaps for the final time, the Power Rangers Zodiac. Can the twelve teenagers save the Earth from the evil ruler of the Universe? Find out next on the Power Rangers Zodiac! *cue theme song*
1. Chapter 1: Hannah

Just letting you guys know in advance that I do sort of write fight scenes to songs and therefore if you want something to get you in the mood with reading you can try which ever one I list at the top! The very first song is Supergirl by Krystal. Enjoy!

**Hannah**

Fire was raining from the sky.

I'm not talking metaphorical fireworks fire; I'm talking apocalypse-raining **fire. **But that wasn't all; the fireballs were forming, taking a sick shape and forcing their matter into that of a human form, Meteor Riders. The Riders that touched the ground slowly started to lose fire, except for their hands. Unless you put them out, their hands are always flaming. There were ten of them and they all landed nice and neat on the field, sending everyone in sight into a panic.

Never had I wished that Etoile found more Rangers than at this moment, training a leader separately made some sense up until the villain arrives to Earth before we have a chance to find more.

I slid away from the spirit assembly at the football field, but by that point it was just more mass panic than anything else. The whole school was required to be there too, all 1,000 kids plus a few dozen teachers made for a good batch of chaos that no one could easily control. It also made getting away unnoticed that much easier, I wasn't called out by anyone, teacher or student, as I slipped into the locker room right under the bleachers.

When I was sure that no one was around I held my Taurus pendant around my neck in two hands on its sides.

"Align the Stars!" I shouted my morphing call, extending my arms forward, the spirit of my pendant coming out with them. "Silver Taurus Ranger!" The familiar metamorphosis took over as the costume came over me, a shining silver spandex suit with a white vest-like area and green accents around it and the tops of my white gloves and boots, complete with skirt. Then the final piece, my helmet. Also silver, except for the dark grey outline of my symbol and the black eye pieces under the horns. The morph always feels like a lifetime, but in reality only takes a few seconds.

I sprinted out of the locker room and jumped over the mass of people, knowing I had their attention and almost calmed them down. "Get out of here!" I shouted at them. These days just the presence of a Ranger makes people feel more at ease. They just didn't know that I hadn't ever exactly fought a real villain henchmen thing before.

I may have had the attention of the crowd, but not the Rider, which was a problem. "Hey! Meteor Fuckers!" I called. Now I had their attention. "Tell the Universal it's going to take a lot more than a rain of stupid to take over the Earth!" And with that I leapt into battle with them, just like Etoile taught me. Step one: stop the fire on their hands. I wasn't a fire user so I couldn't just fight them without getting burned. But as an Earth user it was easy to "clap" out the fire. So I did, I summoned rocks from the ground right by the Meteor Riders' hands then clapped mine together, crushing their hands and putting out the fire. Step two: attack. "Bull staff!" I summoned. Its energy coat was the only way I know to destroy a Meteor Rider. I hopped the fence and began to take on two of the Riders. The only real advantage that they had was the fire hands, but after you get rid of them they're no more than just silly putty patrollers. I stuck the killing blow to the both of them and they exploded into ash.

I looked to attack the others when I noticed five others fighting them as well. I guess they rushed onto the field when I clapped out the riders. I took a running start and used my staff as a pole volt, going to help out Anna, a small freshman on the volleyball team with me who was surrounded by three of them. The other four were each fighting one, except for Patrick, a boy my age who was taking on two, rather well, that son of a bitch. He must have seen me hit the Riders with the staff, destroying them because when he saw me watching him he called, "Give me the stick!"

I tossed it, calling back, "It's a staff!" I heard him call 'Whatever' to me as I ran over to Klaus, a student who moved from Germany two years ago, who despite being a strong guy didn't know how to fight all that well. He gladly got out of the way, I don't really know why he was there in the first place, any of them for that matter.

As I continued basically waiting for my staff Klaus asked me, "Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter!" I told him. I slammed my foot down and a part of the ground rose up right were the Meteor Rider was standing, launching it to the other side of the field where no one was. I ran over to Laura, a senior who was barely five feet tall but kicking Rider ass. I did the same to her Rider, then ran over to Felicia and did the same. I saw Patrick successfully got rid of his Riders too, so I ran, flipped over him, snatching my staff from his hands and called, "Silver Bull blast!" and a giant burst of light came out of it turning the three Meteor Riders to ash.

I was barely able to catch my breath before a wave of questions came to me in the form of five teenagers who just risked their lives to save others.

"Who are you?" "What were those things?" "Is someone going to attack the Earth?" "Does this mean we'll finally have Power Rangers in Mt. Lebanon?"

Using a voice much deeper than how I normally talked I answered all of them. I turned to Anna, "I can't say." Then to Felicia, "Meteor Riders." To Klaus, "Yes, but I'm going to be doing my best to stop it." Finally Laura, "So it would seem, kid." For kicks I went to Patrick. "Anything you'd like to say?"

"Cool stick." Was his only reply.

"Staff." I addressed them all as a group and said, "Thank you citizens for helping me, hopefully the team will be assembled before the next attack."

Suddenly, a hologram appeared over our heads with a crack of lightning and thunder, in it a light blue skinned bald man with flaming red eyes and a black mouth, the Universal. "Citizens of Earth" he rasped "You seem to think that you can challenge me with this tiny defense team. The last time a team took me on it was of twelve and I was only delayed for a thousand years. Now you think you can destroy me with six? Clearly your race is stupider that before, as if it were possible. No matter, your race will make a grand addition to my slave catalogue. Give up now earthlings, it will be much easier before you have to loose lives." He faded out with a cackle, truly a timed villain.

"Well, like I was saying, thank you guys, but I really must be going now."

"Wait." Patrick said. "I do have a question. Where is the rest of your team?"

"You're looking at it. Just me myself and I."

"But he said six. He thinks that we're Rangers."

"Yeah well somehow idiots can manage to take over parts of the universe. They see someone doing good and can't imagine them fighting to just keep people safe, they can't imagine the kindness of your hearts. So naturally you must have been roped into being Rangers." With that I grabbed my green belt buckle and teleported back to the Star Chamber. My teleportation was simple, just a pulse of silver light that blinded the civilians. Then when it faded I was gone with it, taken to the Star Chamber, the Zodiac Power Ranger headquarters, names so because it is literally made of stars. The stars created the power an eternity ago and along with the powers themselves they made the Chamber, and Etoile, my mentor. She was a beautiful seven foot tall women with dark royal blue skin and stars dusting all over her.

Not in the presence of normal humans anymore I powered down, reveling my 5'7" frame complete with ripped jeans and a grey union jack shirt. These days I was prone to silver and grey a lot more than before. My brunette hair that was just touching my shoulders was matted to my neck. "Why didn't you warn me they were coming early? You must have known!" I asked.

Three million voices responded, "Worry not little bull." Then Etoile came out of the stars, materializing on the large platform in front of me. "Those Meteor Riders were nothing more than the ones you have been facing for months. We had wanted to see how you would fair in a real danger situation. Simulations in the Star Chamber only do so much."

One would think that I would be angry with this, because she lied to me and what not. But Etoile is literally the conscious embodiment of the stars, it's understandable that she doesn't get earth customs like honesty. "And how did I do?"

"You did wonderfully, we couldn't be more proud." She beamed. "And the others di-"

"Others?" I interrupted.

"Yes, the others who were fighting with you. That was the second objective of the attack. The time has come to train the rest of your team."

I nodded. "When?"

"As soon as possible, now. We would suggest morphing again as to not shock your classmates too much."

I agreed. "Align the stars! Silver Taurus Rangers!" With that I was back in my uniform.

"Are you ready little bull?" She asked me, and I nodded again. Etoile's eyes glowed brighter than they already were, signaling that she was pulling someone from their current state, teleporting them. Six bright lights appeared in the room, pink, yellow, white, black, gold and purple.

"But Etoile," I protested using the same voice I used when talking to them before. "there were only five fighting with me."

"Patience Taurus," was her reply, "physically fighting evil is not what being a Power Ranger is about."

The lights all dimmed, then disappeared to revile six mystified looking teenagers. Felicia, Laura, Patrick, Klaus, JT who didn't fight, and Anna.

"Greetings Earthlings, we are Etoile and this is our Star Chamber. You have been summoned here because I ask of you the honorable burden, to become Power Rangers. Come forward, and accept your destiny.

"Felicia, born under the twins, with the incite of two, you are the Pink Gemini Ranger." Her light captured her again and she was engulfed in her costume, like mine but pink with a gold belt buckle and accents. Her helmet was her symbol in grey with the eyepieces outside of the center bars and her mouth was outlined directly under the lowest bar. "You have the power of the air at your side, and a set of Twin daggers.

"Laura, born unto the innocent, with the trust of youth, you are the Yellow Virgo Ranger." Her costume was exactly like mine but yellow. On her helmet, her eyepieces were in between the 'm' part of her grey symbol and the swoosh of it wrapped under her mouth outline. "You like Taurus command the earth, with the assistance of your Virgo whip.

"Patrick, born to justice, with the moral code of the scales, you are the White Libra Ranger." He was the first male Power Ranger and for the most part his uniform was like ours, sans the skirt of course, along with his belt buckle and accents being the same gold as Natalie. On his helmet, he mouth was outlined around the bottom bar, and his eyes outside either of the edges of the scales. "You and the Gemini are bonded in the ways of the air, you have the Balanced throwing stars to assist you in the fight against evil. In addition you are also the second in command of the team to the Taurus." Shit, he wasn't going to like that when he found out who I was.

"Klaus, born in the bow of the Archer, with the eye of adventure you are the Black Sagittarius Ranger. His black costume materialized, complete with red belt and accents and his eyes were in the arrow that was his sign. "You are the first welder of fire, with the grace of the Archer's bow to aid you.

"JT, you saw that enough were already fighting the Meteor Riders before you had the chance so you went and assisted the crowd, leading them away from the mayhem. We cannot all be offensive in our pursuits to save the world, it also takes those who will guide civilians to make this teamwork. Born to the water-carrier, with the selflessness of the basin he carries, you are the Gold Aquarius Ranger." His belt and accents matched his suit exactly and his visor of his helmet was in between the two squiggles of his symbol. "You are the third and final as well as the principle air user of the power ranger team, use your Aquari-jar of explosives to help you.

"And finally, little Anna, born to the conflicting fish, with the cunning to swim upstream, you are the Purple Pisces Ranger." It was not an innocent lilac like any of us would have expected, but a deep plum that Annie was now wrapped in. The royal blue belt and accents were a nice contrast to it as well. The centerline of her symbol was her visor, outlined in grey. "You are the first of the water users, and shall have the Fin slicers on your wrists."

"We will leave you now, talk as a team, know each other." She faded into the oblivion behind her leaving us seven teenagers here.

No one said anything for several minutes, so as the leader I took the first step, "You guys know the helmets have clasps on them, you can take them off and still be in uniform. Or if you want to power down just think it and say power down, it is another rank thing, so as long as someone of higher rank says it, then you just loose the power too."

After they all powered down, Laura demanded, "Look, I'm like the fiftieth person to ask you this today, but who are you? Shouldn't we know now?"

"You will all find a new addition to your wardrobe," I ignored her question, "a necklace with your symbol on it. It is expected of us to wear them at all times as they allow you telepathic connections with the team, teleportation, and are your gateway to morphing." They all tried to stare right through my uniform to find out my identity. I couldn't hide from them forever. "Look, I'm not going to tell you guys who I am today. You've had a lot to take in and if you were to turn down being a Ranger I wouldn't want to reveal that to you, no offence."

"Turn it down?" Felicia interjected. "You mean we don't have to be Rangers?"

"You don't **have **to be, it is your destiny but as people are always able to prove, destiny is not set in stone." I chuckled at my pun, but everyone just continued to look at me. "You know, set in stone, I'm an earth user, my destiny is technically set in stone? No? Okay, tough crowd. Anyways, you are the best fit to make up this team, but if you really don't want to them we could find a way to either make your position not required or just get someone lesser."

"Why does that mean that we can't know who you are though?" JT asked.

"Look at the people around you. They are going to be the only ones to know that you turned down being a Power Ranger. Not a lot of them, but still they would know that you couldn't live up to your destiny and you would have to see them in the halls all the time. Wouldn't you feel a little shame? Now imagine you know your would-be leader's face. The one who almost hand picked you for this, could you see me every day at school? Have classes with me? No offense, but I doubt it. So I'm going to be anonymous for the day. You guys get tonight and all of tomorrow to think about being a ranger and we'll meet after school in Bird Park."

"Where?" Patrick asked, "It's a big park."

"That's another test." I smiled, "I want to see how good your instincts are at recognizing our power." There was a pause, then they all touched their necklaces and teleported out of the Star Chamber.

"Why did you not tell them your identity little bull?" Etoile asked, once again coming from the void of stars.

"Patrick" was my only reply. "We have a bad history, and I felt like he wasn't going to react too kindly to my being the leader of the team. He may have turned it down just because of that. This way he can accept it and then know who I am."

"Oh Hannah," Etoile sighed. "We don't know whether to complement you or child you for being cowardly." I felt the same way.


	2. Chapter 2: Patrick

Hey guys, just letting you know if you need something to grove to while reading, this chapter and it's fight was inspired by MGMT's song Kids. (Most of my fight scenes have some cool background music that I put to them)

* * *

Patrick

I'm not going to lie, I did look at all of the girls during school.

Not for the normal guy reasons, but because I wanted to find **her. **Again, not the normal her, like the one soul mate girl. The leader. It felt weird to even think, already I'm a part of something so giant and important that the world couldn't exist peacefully without us. Well, as peacefully as we're existing currently.

But as second in command (to the girl I'm looking for may I add) I should get perks rights?

That felt even weirder. Sure I've been used to having responsibility, head techie in the tech theater, and I've been a camp counselor for two years now. But if this mystery girl goes down I'm up to bat. The world could be all on my shoulders. Yikes.

Back to said mystery girl. I don't know why I was so determined to find her before the meeting this afternoon, it may have to do with second in command or maybe just curiosity. I looked for a girl in silver first, taking in my white plaid shirt, JT's gold one (which was sort of easy considering our school colors are blue and gold), and Felicia's hot pink skirt. I just had a feeling that she would too. We all would be wearing our colors from now on, it's like a sense of pride for what we will do without actually revealing our identities. There were plenty of girls in gray, even silver, but when I tried to find her Taurus necklace, I came up short.

So I suffered through the day. Finally though, the last bell rang and I near sprinted to Bird Park. We all agreed to meet up at the entrance. No one wanted to go alone it seemed.

"Hey guys" It seemed they were waiting on me. "So" I broke the ice, "Anyone have any instinctual gut feeling on where we're supposed to go?"

Everyone looked at one another until the little blonde girl in purple piped up, "Well, she wanted us to find her based on magic, but I can't 'feel' any of you, you know, magically. So I was thinking, maybe it's not about the girl, but about her magic." She paused, looking at us to see if we were now on the same page. Obviously no one was. "Guys come on! Taurus is an earth sign!"

"Oh!" Felicia exclaimed, "The overnight tree! Duh!"

"I… am still confused. What is a overnight tree?" Klaus asked.

"A month or so ago it just sort of appeared right by a picnic table overnight. No one could explain why it did." I explained. Ugh, how could I be so stupid as to not realize that!

We all started to walk down to the area together in an awkward silence. I wasn't really friends with many of them, except for Felicia. JT and I were friends by association, but he was a tad too Eagle Scout for me to really be close with. The rest were completely random. I had seen a few in the halls and Klaus did a semester of Tech Theater, but we never got close over that.

"So," JT finally said halfway down the trail. "Anyone know who the silver leader girl is?" I should have thought of that too. What else would we all have to talk about other than being the Power Rangers, being that that was the reason we all were here? Of course no one knew though, she made sure that we wouldn't know until she wanted us to. I already don't like her. It seems like she's just screwing with us or something.

"We're all committing then, right?" I asked. "We all are going to join the you-know-what's?"

There was a chorus of 'yeah' and 'yes.' It seemed destiny picked right, at least in six of them. I wasn't so sure. It wasn't that I didn't want to be a Power Ranger; it was just that I don't know what grounds were on. Why now? Why us? I think they all assumed that I was joining the bandwagon right away too because I was supposed to be the second in command. But I thought it gave me the right to have the most doubts of all.

We finally did get to the tree. If you didn't live at the park like some of us do, then you wouldn't notice anything out of place about the tree. Now that we were near it I could almost feel it pulsing with energy, similar to the stick that I used to kill the brown fire handed thingys. It was an average looking oak tree, its origin was just a little less than average.

"Weird." JT said.

"What about this is so weird that you need to say weird?" I snarked. It was harsh but I was getting annoyed.

"It's the middle of October but the tree still has its leaves. They're not even a little red." Again, duh. I swear I'm normally more observant than this.

We got to the picnic table underneath the tree. "So now what?" Felicia asked.

"Now," a voice from in the tree replied, "it's my turn." The mystery girl jumped dow- shit. No. This isn't happening. I can't. Not her. She was the only girl that I knew I couldn't stay on the team for. I didn't see her in the hall, I never do thank god. But here Hannah Grace was, standing with her hands on her hips like she's a goddamn super hero, just like she always did. She had a serious look, but proud as always. At least I wasn't the only one who was surprised that our fearless leader was Hannah fucking Grace. The only one who wasn't surprised was the really short brunette, but they're both weird theater kids, and they stick together like a pack of wolves. "In case you guys didn't catch on, I'm Hannah, the Silver Ranger." She interrupted my thoughts. "I know not all of you may want to do this." I could nearly feel her eyes on me, starring me down, trying to make me look at her. She's smarter than I give her credit for. "But I appreciate you all coming today even if it is to pass off."

The small brunette in yellow almost immediately stepped up. "I'm ready to be the yellow ranger, it's only icing on the cake that you're leading us. You've directed countless theater productions beautifully, bringing all of the actors who once hated each other together. I know you can lead this team."

I was going to be sick. That girl was so full of shit. Next to affirm her position was the little blonde, followed by Eagle Scout JT, which didn't surprise me for obvious reasons, but saying something similar to the brunette about Hannah's brilliance. I couldn't take it. My own friend siding with her. Felicia was even worse, she's dating my best friend for Christ's sake! How dare she side with such an awful person.

I cracked. "I'm out." I muttered and walked away from the happy feely circle. No one called after me or ran to join me. They probably didn't even notice. I could still feel a pair of eyes right on my back, eyes that I haven't really seen in four years. I didn't realize how deep into the park we were; I think it was almost dead center in a two mile park. Maybe I just didn't want to leave yet.

After about half an hour I was what I thought was half way out, almost to the more popular kids' playground.

"What the hell was that?" she growled, dropping out of yet another tree. "You know, I'm used to you being an asshole, whatever, but I thought you would have at least a little more respect for the uniform than to just spit on it."

"Well I figured if you were leading us we would already be making a mockery of Power Rangers everywhere."

"Again, what the hell is wrong with you? This is more than us. More than a stupid grudge from 8th grade. Have you heard of Zack Taylor? Tommy Oliver? Rocky DeSantos? Adam Park? Carlos Espinosa? TJ Johnson? Countless others who were the legendary second in commands, some of them to even go on to be leaders. You're shitting on their legacy right now. I hope you know that!"

"How do you know all of their names? Aren't their identities supposed to be secret?"

"Not to other Rangers asshole. We can know that about each other. And I made sure that I did. I've been learning the legacy, training in all areas, fighting hand to hand, with my staff, and with my element. Studying Power Ranger history, our powers, who we're up against, how the people who's powers we adopted sacrificed themselves to not stop but pause the villain we're probably going to die against because you're being selfish and not taking your position. Now grow a pair and give a better reason for not joining."

"I don't have to." Was all I could muster out.

"You're right." I was taken aback. That was not something I would ever expect her to do, agree with me that is. "You don't have to give me a reason, but you and I know that you're the best person to be my second, and you're the best fighter out of the seven of us, we all know that. Now, I'm perfectly fine with you not being on the team, a lot less bitching at me to deal with but you're going to need a reason. I don't think you could live with yourself knowing you wanted out for something as stupid as not liking someone while people will die because we won't have the very best people possible. You're Libra, the scales. You heard Etoile, you have the supreme moral code. You may walk away from me today but you won't walk out forever."

She took a deep breath, trying to impossibly expel her crazy that she just shot at me. "Look, we're meeting at the Star Chamber in an hour to start your element training. Tomorrow after school too. If you're not there then, I'm assuming your choice and I'll find a new Ranger without your power."

"What? How could they not have the power if you make them a Ranger?"

"Not the suit power, the element. Those of us who were chosen by destiny have the element powers. Those who would be otherwise chosen would not." She looked down at her watch. "I have to go prepare for the others. Think it over and I'll see you tomorrow in the Star Chamber."

"What makes you so sure that I'll come. Why won't I just say fuck my moral code?"

"Because you were completely on board with being a Power Ranger until you found out that the Silver Ranger was me. You also know that we worked well together fighting, which makes you even more confused. How can someone so bitchy and crazy be so good at being a Power Ranger? You're wondering to yourself. It's because it's in my destiny, the only thing that is important in my life as far as I'm concerned. And I know that you feel the same way even though you haven't been training for this for two months already." She started to teleport out.

"Wait!" I said just right before she touched her necklace. "What about the other five? The ones that we haven't found yet?"

"You will know them by the star light that burns through them." She replied, and I swear her voice sounded a little like Etoile's for just a moment. After that she teleported away, I looked at just the wrong spot and saw her icy blue gray eyes right before she vanished into her silver light. Well for the first conversation with her since 8th grade it went exactly as I thought it would go. She was manipulative and annoying. Also making me think things I hadn't even realized myself. Stupid intuitiveness of hers.

I continued forwards to the playground. The sounds of kids playing and screaming got louder… but it wasn't happy screaming. I took off, sprinting to the playground and then I saw them. Five of the same crazy things that attacked us yesterday. Suddenly I went into full battle mode, racing past kids I jumped on to the jungle gym. The kids were already off of it so it made sense to use that to run opposed to just the ground, also I was higher than the fire freaks. I climbed onto the top ledge and flipped off, kicking one of the things in the head. "Leave these kids alone freaks." I demanded. Finally noticing me they all charged forwards, circling around me. I attacked the one directly in front of me, kicking it in the chest. It went to punch me but I blocked it just in – Jesus Christ! I'm an idiot. I forgot that their stupid hands have fire on them; I'm now sporting a nice burn on my arm.

_Think _I told myself, doing my best to ignore the pain in my arm. _How did she get rid of the fire yesterday? _But I didn't have time to think, one of them flew through the air, ready to attack me. Suddenly I started moving, a fluid sort of thing with lots of movement and the wind picked up. An extremely powerful gust of it came through and blew out all of their fire hand. Ha! Now I got them! My burn shot an immensely painful burst of holy shit ow through my arm then all through my body. I couldn't take it, my insides were burning. Right before I passed out I could have sworn that I saw a silver light shooting from the sky.


	3. Chapter 3: Hannah

**Hannah**

I don't know if I was mad at Patrick or not. I mean, he handled everything completely poorly, but he did it as expected. After everyone else confirmed their position on the team, some even going as far as Laura to vocalize their faith in me, I told them to go to the Star Chamber. Etoile was going to start giving them the basics in their elemental training.

I followed Patrick as quickly as I could, running through the trees. It was almost as natural as running on the ground. It wasn't too difficult to find him, I could feel the wind strong enough. He may not know it but I knew the power could pick up when a user was feeling strong emotions. Now grant it, his were probably hate but whatever. So I found him, jumped out of a tree, yelled at him some then teleported out.

"Etoile, how do we find a new Libra candidate?" I asked her on the platform at the Star Chamber. The others were in the simulation room training. They were actually training, all of them taking it very seriously and treating the uniform they were wearing with respect.

"The would not be your second in command if that 's what your asking. That would most likely fall to JT. But we would do it using the qualities that the first Rangers of Earth were chosen by."

"How was that?"

She smiled, "Picking a teenager with attitude."

"Do you think he'll come?"

"It is uncertain. Yesterday we would have said yes, today…" she sighed.

"I think he will." I was optimistic. "He may not like it, by it I mean me, but his morals won't let him. I just don't know how he'll work out as my second… there's too much bad history."

"Worry not, my little bull." She consoled me, "you have proven that you can lead, with and without the power suit. You can make a very convincing speech." She looked to the Sim room. "They are coming along well, after only just a day." Felicia and JT were meditating and a wind that only they could feel was blowing through the grass around them. Anna was at the pool, trying to move the tide every once in a while getting it to shift, a beaming smile on her face behind the helmet every time. I couldn't actually see the smile, but her little dance certainly helped imagine it. Laura was having some difficulty shifting rocks, but they did wobble some. Klaus however was the best of all, already able to produce fire from his hands and his left foot.

"Yes they are," I agreed.

"The stars-" she gasped and her eyes started to glow. "Libra, he is in danger at the park. Meteor Riders."

"You didn't send the Meteor Riders before, did you?"

"We will explain when you get back. Now go, he is in danger!"

"Alright." I agreed. "Align the stars! Silver Taurus Ranger!" I teleported out at once to the park. With a cry of "hiya!" I jumped to the group of riders around him and did what I liked to call a ground pound, sending all of the riders flying around him. "Back away from him Meteor fuckers!" I called at them. While they were scrambling to get up, I took a look at his out-cold body and gasped, the giant burn on his arm was so bad, it's no wonder that he passed out. I pressed his necklace, teleporting him out.

_Huh, _I thought, looking at the Meteor Riders. _None of their hands are on fire. _Patrick must have done it unmorphed. Impressive, I didn't even think that was possible.

"Bull staff!" I summoned. I went to work, quickly wiping out three of them with a twirl. The next one was running at me and I used the staff like a bat, making it burst to ash right from the middle. I had one more to go who was also running away, so slamming my foot on the ground, raising a rock in the air I hit it with my staff, transferring the energy to it, sending it flying into the rider and making it burst.

I checked to see if anyone was around before unmorphing, also taking a moment to try to expel some of my adrenaline. It was really impossible; this was like being higher than on the best kind of weed.

Finally able to compose myself, I teleported back to base, curious to see how Patrick was doing, and why Etoile lied.

"How is he?" I asked as soon as I materialized.

"Patrick is getting better." Etoile said, her hand glowing resting over top of his burn while he lay on a padded bench. "The fire that Meteor Riders use is far different than fire on Earth. Theirs contains a poison lethal to humans if not treated right away."

Then, the others came in, each without their helmets on.

"Oh my god." Felicia whispered.

"What happened?" Anna asked.

"Is he okay?" Klaus chimed in.

"Does this mean that he's going to be on the team?" JT offered.

"Why wasn't he wearing his suit?" Laura knowledgably asked.

"He fought some Meteor Riders in the park. For some stupid reason, probably pride, he didn't morph and now the acid fire that the Riders use is in his bloodstream and Etoile is working to get it out."

"You didn't answer my question, Hanna." JT said.

"I don't know." I admitted. "But at least it means that he can't turn away from helping innocents." I turned to Etoile. "What did I tell you? It's that moral code of his. Gets people into situations like this all the time."

Etoile turned to everyone. "He will be fine. Our starlight has healed him, he should be waking up in a matter of minutes." We heard a groan from him, maybe not minutes after all.

"Hey Pat." Felicia immediately went to him. "How are you feeling?"

"Like my veins started flowing with electricity." He replied groggily.

"That wouldn't have happened if you just morphed." I muttered.

"How was I supposed to know that? You never told me anything."

"You never stuck around long enough for me to tell." I shot back.

"Does this mean that you're staying on the team?" JT asked.

Patrick paused, thinking for a long time, looking at all of us for a second or two until he finally looked me in the eyes and said, "Looks like I don't have a choice. I don't think I could stay away if I tried. Hell, I nearly killed myself just fighting some dinky what-ever their calleds."

"Meteor Riders." I said. "They're called Meteor Riders, or just Riders. Next time you fight them though, make sure to not touch their fire." I tried to joke, but I think he took it as my giving him an order. "It has special properties so once it touches you, the acid in it goes straight to your bloodstream, you die in about an hour."

"We have designed your suits to protect from that as well as thousands of other extraterrestrial materials not familiar to Earth. They are made of the light of the stars, an energy so pure that it can purge almost any substance." Etoile said.

"Etoile, may I speak with you?" I asked her, indicating that I wanted privacy.

"Of course little bull." We walked over to the other side of the platform, the others start to talk amongst themselves so I didn't need to worry about their overhearing.

"Those were real Meteor Riders. You didn't send that projection of the Universal, that was him. We don't have two months, he'll be here sooner than that."

"You are correct. I am sorry to have lied to you, but it was necessary for you to continue on as normal. We also did not want to admit that we were wrong." She smiled. "We do hope you understand."

"Of course, I would have been a lot more panicy if I knew that we barely had anytime to form a team. I don't know if I would have been able to give such amazing speeches that I did. I don't even know if they were even that effective." I lamented.

"You must talk to Patrick again. He will stay on your team with just a little bit more of a push, we believe."

"Right, I'll talk to him one more time."

"Very well." She turned to the group. "JT, Anna, Felicia, Laura, and Klaus. You may start to work with your weapons or continue to train with elements. Hannah and Patrick need a word."

"No." I contradicted her. "I want him to talk in front of everyone." He wouldn't dare turn away now with Anna and her sweet eyes.

"Go ahead." He challenged me. "Talk."

"I still want to know if you're walking away."

"Why would you walk away?" Anna asked quietly in her cute voice.

We all waited for his answer. Finally I said, "We're waiting on you."

"Hannah and I have a past… a bad one. I don't think I could be on the same team as her."

"You'd be willing to give up a once in a million lifetime chance to be a Power Ranger and save the world because of a little bad history?" Anna interjected. "What the hell did she do, kill your brother?" That was the Anna I knew, up front and loud.

"Well, no." he sighed, thought about everything for a while then said, "Fuck it. I'm in. Where do I signup, oh fearless leader?"

"Cute." I said. "But no signup necessary. Just promise me that you're not going to walk out whenever you don't like something that I do. And do us all a favor and morph next time you come across a Meteor Rider. No one likes healing you all of the time, and the stress is just too damn high."

"Deal." He said. "So what now?"

"Now," I responded. "We find the others. There are five more who we need on this team and we need to find the as soon as possible."

"How do we find them?" Laura asked attentively.

"You will know them by the star light that burns through them, meaning I think that they're gonna be glowing so fucking bright its going to be difficult to ignore." Patrick was able to say before I could.

"I'm impressed." I complemented.

"Yeah, shocking that I was able to remember one sentence that you said."

I hardcore glared at him. "The problem is, we don't have as much time as Etoile originally thought. In her plan she would train me for two months then we would find all of you and then become a team in the two months that remained. But the Universal moves fast, much faster than she anticipated."

"How much time do we have?" Anna asked.

"About two weeks, give or take. The Meteor Riders can travel much faster than his megaship so hopefully we can handle them until something much worse comes along. Which is why it is imperative to find the others as soon as possible. Until then I think we should meet everyday after school here for training. Element, hand to hand, weapon…"

"Zord?" Felicia asked excitedly. "I've always wanted to have a zord of my own!"

"Actually, I don't know if we have zords." I admitted. "Etoile never brought them up. Maybe the Universal never thought it was necessary to make his monsters grow twenty stories."

"What exactly is the Universal?" JT asked.

"You know the universe?" I asked almost sarcastically and looked at all of them. "Legend has it that it was named after him. He was the original ruler of all of it. Enslaving some races, killing off others just for fun. Always looking to claim every single planet as his own. Basically what humans would call God. Just in a more tangible form. Forces have been known to stop him, like those who wore our suits the last time. But no one has ever been able to defeat him." I deliberately looked at Daniel. "Every single team to ever go up against him has died trying. Leaving him weaker than before, but still, alive. We're going to be the team that stops him."

"And why is that?" Patrick asked sarcastically.

"Because we can learn from the past team's mistakes and not let their bad history get in the way of the future." I snapped back. We both sort of played a game of staring chicken, neither one wanting to give into the other's control. And so our glorious partner/leadership began.


	4. Chapter 4: JT

JT

If I could go back in time I would. Not to kill Hitler, or see who really assassinated JFK, but to tell my 7 year old self to screw everyone. Maybe not exactly like that being that I would only be 7 but pretty much that. He had a few very simple dreams: Adopt a T-Rex, never get married because girls had cooties, and become a Power Ranger.

It wasn't for the normal little boy reason either. I didn't do it because of the cool weapons or the giant zords to crush evil doers, I wanted to be one to help people, as odd as it would sound to anyone other than me. So I told my parents and they told me that few people become power rangers (their terms grew harsher as I kept telling them my dream job). Then I grew up a little bit, and I started to shadow my dad the fireman. So okay I knew that I couldn't be a power ranger, well I told my parents that but I just hoped I was part of the select few, and instead I wanted to be a fireman, just like dad. Because if I couldn't help people in the way that I wanted to, I would do it in a 'more realistic' way.

Maybe I do eventually time travel and go tell little Jonathan that his dream will come true and that chicks dig initials and I just don't remember it. But I do know that there was always that part in the back of my brain nagging me that I was going to do something better than just being an Eagle Scout to a fireman.

So it really was a no-brainer when I went to help people at the spirit assembly. I know it didn't seem like I was helping, but I saw that there was a Power Ranger there and if there was anything I knew about them it was that they would always keep people safe. I just wanted to make sure that people stayed safe. So I moved them along. Calming down the crowd to take them to the baseball fields down the hill from the stadium. And as soon as everyone was calm and collected I was teleported off.

I approve of the gold too. Not because I'm a flashy kind of guy who enjoys wearing lots of bling, contrary to what Dan is going to say, he never misses the opportunity to make fun of my blackness and the complete lack of 'swag' that I have. But because there have only been three gold rangers in the history of the teams being on earth, I could be different. I get a chance at improving upon a unique group of rangers who aren't on the field as often as yet another Red Ranger.

Which is another thing I'm confused about. The Red Ranger is always the leader, always standing at the point of their lines, always the one that addresses the villain or the civilians, always the one that gets to do the battle cry. So why don't we have one and why isn't he or she the leader? No knock on Hannah or anything, I'm sure she'll do fine, we're just sort of floating against the Power Rangers grain. In all of the pictures that I've seen, the only ranger who wasn't red and lead was the original white, which makes sense in Patrick's case, sort of. He could be the leader if something were to happen to Hannah.

I repeated the same thing as yesterday at school, looking for rangers. Looking back on it I feel sort of stupid for not recognizing Hannah as the Silver Ranger, I mean she and Laura were whispering and giggling more than usual during Theater, not to mention looking at me a lot. I didn't want to be caught unawares again though. Supposedly this time would be easier, because Etoile sent out basically a homing beacon for the kids not realized yet. I was determined to find one. At least. Hopefully we could find them all with in the day and then get started on becoming a team.

It's sort of funny to think about the people I'll be fighting with. I know almost all of them so far, excluding Anna, I think her name was and the German, his name started with a K. Hannah and Laura are in my theater class, and I occasionally hang out with Patrick and Felicia's circle of friends. I have a feeling that will either make or break the team. We're all familiar with each other to some degree but we already have presumed judgments about everyone too. I know there's something going on with Patrick and Hannah obviously, you'd have to be completely unobservant to miss it.

I had hoped Laura knew something, which was why after the bell rings I was going to ask her about it, maybe give us more insight as to what the team is going to be like. None of my scenes for the show were today, so I got to spend the period just hanging out, doing paper work. Finally with it's false cheer d minor tones the bell rang.

"Hey guys." I said to Laura and Hannah who were gathering up their bags. "Have you had any luck?"

"Luck?" Laura responded.

"You know, finding other Rangers." I lowered my voice making sure no one else could hear. They both shook their heads.

"You never know." Hannah began to laugh, "Maybe Sam is one of them." Laura and I started laughing with her. Sam was a stoner who, when actually showing up to theater, was pretty decent, the problem was that he never showed up. Hardly the kind of guy you want to trust with the safety of the world. Hannah had to go up a flight of stairs before Laura or I did, so she said goodbye and left.

I didn't waste the opportunity to ask Laura what I wanted. "Do you know what's up between her and Patrick?"

She shook her head again. "Sorry. Before today I didn't even know that she knew him, let alone apparently had a past with him. Damn. I wonder what went on with them that was so bad she couldn't talk about it. She rarely shuts up, she talks about everything."

"Except for apparently being a Power Ranger for two months." I pointed out.

"True." She agreed. "But that's a bit understandable. Hell I knew every single time she had a crush or saw a cute boy that she liked, never mentioned anything about this Patrick guy."

"Maybe it was in middle school, before she knew you." Laura was a year ahead of us, and I went to catholic school until then. Neither of us would have known her until at least freshman year.

"Yeah probably." We then started to just talk about theater things, before I turned and left her to go to German class. I was trying to not stare at the clock too much- sorry, the _uhr. _Even clock sounds like it's bored in German.

Next period had a promise of being fun though. Yeah it was just study hall, but I always got a pass to go down to the library, and I just hung out with Hannah and a few friends, August and William. None of us study. No, let me rephrase, I rarely ever studied. The others were all in AP US History, or APUSH, the most notoriously hard course in the high school. Lucky for me, Hannah and William seemed to not have anything to do today. August wasn't there yet, which was normal, his study hall teacher always took the longest to get his pass signed.

We all sat down at the table with the comfiest chairs in the library, which isn't saying much, and started talking about theater. It was really the unifying link between us, well for William and us, Hannah and I had a whole other link now.

A green light starts emanating from the doorway, and I was afraid that it was something crazy that had to due with construction. Until I saw the figure in it. _You will know them by the starlight that burns through. _I thought. It was another Ranger! A green one by the look of it! Hannah and I shared a knowing smile. She saw it too! We found the first! Maybe someone else found another one, but it was our first.

"Hey August." Liam said, looking up briefly then back to his book, nodding to the green blob.

August? He was the green ranger?

"Hey JT." Hannah said, jumping up quickly. "Run lines with me for my scene. Over here." She walked away, not waiting to see if I would follow her or not. I had a sneaking suspicion that she didn't want to actually run lines…

I got up to follow her and I heard August say, "Neither of them took a script." Then they started talking about crew stuff.

After a minute of searching I found Hannah in the back of the nonfiction section, a place no one ever went. "So?" I asked. "What's the plan? How do we do this?"

"I've never actually done this part of it… I'm just as blind as you are." She thought for a few seconds. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Pull him aside after APEGS and tell him whatever you need to so you can take him somewhere secluded."

"Then what? I'm going to make out with him?"

"Cute. The next part is up to you, either tell him that he's a Ranger or grab on to him and teleport to the Star Chamber. I'm going to run around school and hopefully I can find at least one other. We'd only need to find three after that and I'd feel a lot more comfortable with this."

"Sounds good. But what do we do right now? Just act normal?"

"We have to. Now that we know what the light looks like, I can safely say that William is not one of the Rangers. Otherwise I would say just do it now. But we have to put on a show." And that we did. We waited a few minutes to act like we were still running lines, she ask about training yesterday and I said how I was excited to get back to practicing. "You may not today. I was thinking today could be a hand to hand sort of day. Get to be familiar with everyone's fighting style and probably help develop a lot of them. Mine sure needed a lot of work when I started."

"How did you become a Ranger?"

"That's a story for another time. One when everyone's there to hear it. I don't like repeating myself." She pulled out her phone. "Okay I think it's been enough time now." We went back and sat down, continuing through the last half hour of the period like we didn't know anything special about Pascal.

He and I went to our next class where we were lab partners and spent the class unfortunately learning. Near the end of it I slipped him a note. _"I need to talk to you."_

_"What about?" _He wrote back.

What could I say? _"I can't just write it, can we talk after school?"_

_"JT are you trying to ask me out? Because you know I don't feel that way about boys and I don't like you like that."_

_"Shut up, asshole. It's not like that."_

_"I was just messing with you dude. So what is it?"_ By that point I figured that he wouldn't come with me unless I told him some version of the truth.

_Do you remember the spirit assembly on Monday? With the things that came out of the fire from the sky?"_

_"Are you trying to tell me that you enjoy dressing up in a grey spandex suit complete with skirt and fight crime?"_

_"Actually I prefer gold, and no skirt." _He looked up at me wide eyed just as the bell rang and our teacher dismissed us. "So can we go somewhere private so I can explain?"

"Yeah. That sounds good." We walked around for a little bit, trying to find a deserted hallway, finally getting to one on the sixth floor.

"I'm going to teleport, and I need you to hold on to me so you can come too." He grabbed my arm and nodded. I took my pendant out from under my shirt and pressed it, transporting us. It was the last time that August was invoked in the gold light.

We touched down in the Star Chamber right in the center of the platform and immediately he was in awe. Turning around I could hear him saying "Wow" to himself a bunch of times. No one else was in the chamber, so I assumed that we were the first ones here. Then with each of their bursts of light the others came in, Anna, Klaus, Felicia had a tall lanky boy with her who wore a newsboy hat, Patrick had Rebecca Rosen with him, a girl in my grade of medium height who had long dark hair, and finally Hannah with a punk looking kid with ear buds around his neck. Each of them looking excited and energized and a little bit scared.


	5. Chapter 5: Rebecca

**Rebecca**

I came to school today knowing that something exciting was going to happen. Normally when I wake up with these feelings I find five dollars on the ground or something. Never would I have expected the feeling to mean that I was about to become a Power Ranger. I wouldn't have ever expected Patrick Glean to lead me to it either.

He always seemed like a nice enough kid, he was nice to everyone and they all loved him. Except for Hannah for some reason. But we never had a reason to talk to each other. We just knew each other's names and happened to be in the same English class last year. So when he came up to me during lunch and asked if I could talk to him in private I had a momentary freak out that went sort of like _"Oh god. I don't know him. Is he asking me out? I don't think I want to be asked out. I mean I do, just not him!" _and then I was relieved when he told me that I was part of the Power Rangers. I know it seems silly but I couldn't help it, he was not a guy that I wanted to turn down. The whole school would have turned against me. Then the excitement kicked in. I was going to be a Power Ranger. He said something about turning it down but screw that. Who the hell would want to turn down being a Power Ranger? So he told me to meet him at the auditorium after school and from there we would find a place to fly off without being noticed.

We were the second to last to teleport in and – oh my god the place was amazing. It seemed so vast and giant because we were standing in the sky. I couldn't tell what was up or down, left or right. The only indicator that we weren't just floating on air was the platform ahead of us. It had a bunch of control panels around it and a single entrance through the sets. The other Rangers sort of surprised me, I wouldn't have figured Felicia, Laura, August or Jerry as one, and JT was the only one I would have guessed. I didn't know the other two. A few seconds later, Hannah teleported in with a punk rock kid with earphones around his neck, which blew my mind. Why didn't she tell me that she was a Power Ranger? We were close friends!

"Hey guys," Hannah said stepping up. "I want to thank all of you for coming today. This is the Star Chamber, the home of the Zodiac Power Rangers. You all have a destiny, one that is full of more that just living a normal life, it is one of greatness, of saving the world. Of being apart of the best fighting team in the world."

"Thank you for that Taurus." A giant woman said, appearing out of the side of the chamber. "We are Etoile, Rangers, liaison and voice of the stars. And as Hannah said, you are destined to become the Power Rangers. Those who have just been awakened, step forward onto the platform." August, Jerry, the punk and I all stepped up.

"Adrian," she said to the punk, "born of the ram, with the bravery for the upcoming journey ahead you are the Red Aries Ranger." His red suit appeared on him in a flash of light, the matching belt buckle and accents with it, his visor under the horns of his symbol. "You are a user of fire, and you have the ram laser to assist in your fight against evil."

She turned to me, and I could feel this warm glow start to build from my stomach until it grew all through me. "Rebecca, born to the lion, with the heart of the pride, you are the Orange Leo Ranger." The heat burst and I could hear a lion's roar as I was blinded by orange light, and I could feel something materializing over my clothes before they disappear completely. A surge of power was running through me and I was breathless. I had never felt so strong and in control in my life. I felt like I could leap buildings and fall from twenty stories and still manage to land on my feet. "You are the final fire user as well as the principle and the Leo sword is yours when you need help and guidance."

I only barely heard her talking to Jerry. I was still way too focused on myself. "Jerry, born to the scorpion, with the might of its stinger, you are the Blue Scorpio Ranger." In the flash of blue light his suit appeared, with a belt buckle and accents also matching his color. His eyes were seen through the under parts of the 'M' like symbol on his helmet. "You shall be the principle water user, and the Scorpo lance will aid you.

"Finally August, born to the goat, with the ambition to climb every mountain, you are the Green Capricorn Ranger." He was captured in his forest green light, and then shielded in the uniform with the same colored accents and buckle. His visor was in the center of his symbol. "You are the final and principle earth user. Along with the power you will receive the mountain Lance."

"What's a principle user?" JT asked Hannah softly.

"A principle user, Aquarius, is you who wear the color of the element. You are the leaders of each elemental group." Etoile said she then looked to us in uniform. "Each of you morphed may say 'power down' or August simply needs to say it to remove your suit, or simple unlatch the helmet."

"Why him?" Jeremy asked.

"It's a rank thing. Who ever is highest rank and morphed has authority over commands like that." Hannah elaborated for us.

"Power down?" He said like a question, but still it worked. We all powered down. I could feel the power slip away from me, but still lingering. I had a feeling that we would never be the same again. "There's more than one leader?" August asked.

"That was actually my idea." Hannah said. "We're the largest team of rangers, most teams only consisting of five to seven rangers. We have double that. So I sort of figured that we had a few ways to break into teams, all twelve of us, teams of six, three groups of four one from each element, and four groups of three each of the elements."

"Why aren't you the principle leader for Earth?" the blonde girl in purple asked. "You are the leader."

"Really?" I heard August mutter next to me. That didn't surprise me. Hannah may not act like it on a daily basis, but I always felt like I could go to her for guidance.

"Yes." Hannah responded to her, "But I was not chosen by the stars to be the Earth leader, that's August's job."

"What about the other teams?" Jerry spoke. "Who all is leading those?"

"For the teams of six, I will be in charge of one, and Patrick the other. He's my second in command." She said to us who didn't know. I bet she hates that. "Everyone else is up in the air for those still, it depends on how everyone fights and works together. That is the same with the teams of four. Although the teams of six will be based more on fighting and the teams of four on the mystical elemental side. We should be able to make these teams in the next few weeks." She turned back to us new recruits "You all have a chance to say no, I gave everyone else a day to think about it. You may stay and train for today or go back to Earth, but either way you don't need to make your decision until tomorrow."

"Screw that." I said. "I'm on. Let's get to work!" We all laughed.

"I'm with her." August said, shifting his head at me. "I want to be a Power Ranger. No regrets."

"If you don't mind," the punk kid – Adrian said. "I'm going to go home. I need to think for a while."

"Me too." Jerry said.

"Of course guys." Hannah said coolly. "Just make sure you're back tomorrow to give me the final answer." They both nodded and she gave them their pendants. "Just pressed the symbol and think of the place you want to be teleported." They did so and blurred out of here in a red and blue light. "While I'm at it…" She handed August and I our pendants as well. "Wear them always. You will be able to use them to teleport as well as telepathically communicate with everyone on the team and Etoile." Hannah then told us all about the Universal and the evil that was coming with him, yay. While she was doing that, Etoile bade out and faded into the background. "Now for training for today."

"Do we get to suit up?" August asked excitedly. I knew the feeling. I wanted to get back to that again.

"Maybe later today. For right now I want to see everyone's basics fighting. Through these doors," She waved her hand and two doors of light appeared. "Are locker rooms. There are all sorts of work out clothes and shoes in all sizes and colors. Left is for the guys and right for the girls. On the other side of each there is a door to the simulation room." We all started walking to our respective locker rooms. Ready to take on the world.

Inside it was a typical locker room, except it only had about ten lockers in it, and a stall for each of the ten as well as five showers. On the far side there was a giant wardrobe of all the colors you could imagine. I gravitated towards the orange, not even consciously. I chose an orange tank top with some nice black athletic shorts. If I was going to look like Halloween for the rest of my teenage years I might as well start right away. "I'm Rebecca, by the way." I said to the short girl by the purple clothes.

"Anna. I'm a freshman. That's probably why you don't know me."

"Wow. Only a freshman? What's that like?"

"The original rangers were only freshman you know." Hannah said from inside a stall.

"Don't even get me started on you. Why didn't you tell me you had the coolest job ever?"

"Duh, we're not allowed to tell anyone." Felicia said.

"If you tell someone then they could be in danger of getting in the line of fire, not to mention revealing it to the public then your whole family and friends are in danger of being attacked." Laura said, coming out of a stall in a pair of yellow yoga pants and a white tank top. Felicia came out a few seconds later in a pink tee shirt with black shorts that had a streak of pink up the side.

"You guys all go to the Sim room!" Hannah called to us. "I'll be out in a second." We took her order and went through the other connecting door to what I could only call Disneyworld to a health addict. It was like the world's largest gym, complete with all sorts of courts and fields, pools a back wall area made entirely of stone and I think a smoothie shop in the far back corner. The guys were already waiting for us, Patrick in black sweatpants and a white tee shirt, Klaus in all black, August had a white wife beater and green pants, and JT wore gold shorts and a black tee shirt. "Okay guys," Hannah said coming out of the locker room, she had a coral sports bra and grey yoga pants on. Everyone was wearing their pendants. "I want to see where everyone stands on fighting. I know Patrick and Felicia both have experience so if you guys don't mind I was hoping you could lead us today." She looked at both of them, almost pleading more with Patrick than with Felicia.

"Yeah of course!" Felicia said right away. Patrick muttered a sure after her. They huddled up with Hannah and talked for a little bit before telling everyone to pair up, we would have these partners for the rest of our training. Hannah said that she would step out and observe for now because we had an uneven number. So Patrick and Felicia, August and JT, Klaus and Laura, and Anna and I were partnered up.

"Have you done this before?" I asked.

"Nope. I'm a super klutz. I've fallen over trying my shoes before. Just try not to laugh too much when I fall on my ass."

"Alright." Patrick said. "Step one. We do not…" he went off into teaching us and we didn't work with partners, just on form. We learned how to breath, kick, punch and take blows without taking too much damage. When one of them wasn't teaching they were walking around us with Hannah. She was just observing while the others occasionally were correcting our form.

We never got to use partners though because right as Felicia and Patrick were saying it was a good idea for hand to hand, Hannah said "I want to see elemental use."

"So we do get to suit up?" JT almost jumped with joy. I knew the feeling I wanted to be in uniform again.

"For a little bit. Now everyone watch carefully. To morph, the highest rank shouts 'align the stars' then we all do the same motion ending up with hitting your pendant, triggering the transformation."

"Do we have a flank?" August asked.

"Highest rank than whoever gets where first. So long as the person saying the phrase is in front, its cool." She gave us a sly smile. ""You ready?" Everyone nodded. "Align the stars! Silver Taurus Ranger!"

"Pink Gemini Ranger!"

"Orange Leo Ranger!" I didn't even realize it was my turn, I just went with the feeling in my stomach.

"Yellow Virgo Ranger!"

"White Libra Ranger!"

"Black Sagittarius Ranger!"

"Green Capricorn Ranger!"

"Gold Aquarius Ranger!"

"Purple Pisces Ranger!"

"HA!" we all called out. I felt like there should have been some giant explosion behind us that would have been really out of place and over budget but really awesome.

"What now?" I asked. I wanted to go climb a building or something, I had so much energy.

"I want everyone to get in your elements. Get to know each other and the power, these are the people you'll be spending a lot of time with. Anna, just hang out and work on mastering the water for now by yourself."

The Red Ranger was the only other person I knew for sure who was a fire user; the accents on our uniforms must have to do with our element because all of the gold ones were together and same with the greens. The Black Ranger came up to me, "Rebecca, right?" he said with a cute German accent. "I'm Klaus, the other fire bender." He walked over to the stonewall in the back. "This is for us, at least while we're still learning so we don't ruin anything." He laughed. "I can show you how I at least figured out how to use fire."

"I'd love that." I smiled, hoping that he could see it through my helmet.


	6. Chapter 6: Hannah

**Hannah**

I was more than a little excited about today. I found not one, but two new rangers, one of whom I had a major crush on and the other who was in my theater class for a week before dropping out to join yet another art class. I should let JT claim August, because he technically told him that he was a Ranger. But at the same time, I wanted him to know I found him. Silly, I know but it could be another connection between us. If only he was in APUSH that morning, then I could say that I did, but he slept in instead. Adrian was a little different. He just moved from Maine to live with his cousin at the start of the school year. He was the stereotypical guy that I went out with, sort of unpopular, cute, nerdy and slightly punk rock. Basically me in guy form, which is why August was so different and one I especially wanted to make as many connections with as possible. He wasn't cute, he was dead sexy, popular and extremely intelligent, something I didn't normally go after for fear of going too far out of my league.

Adrian was only in our theater class for a week before dropping out to pursue are more. If we didn't have lockers extremely close to each other I don't think I would have ever known he was a Ranger. I had to go up to him and pull the 'hey how's art going by the way you should come with me to this quiet dark place so I can tell you your destiny.' I'm pretty sure he thought I was going to ask him out. But he agreed to teleport off with me even though he didn't seem too comfortable with the idea. Honestly I would have taken the day to think too. I don't blame him or Jerry, it's a lot to take in.

Rebecca and August are handling it really well. The others too. We haven't even formally trained as a team, save today, and it seems like they've been apart of this for as long as I have. I didn't know how much I would really need a team until they were all standing here learning how to fight looking like actual Power Rangers. As they all breathe and follow instructions from Felicia and Patrick, I can already see the bonds of teamwork.

I saw their auras for the first time. They all sort of creeped from their skin. Etoile told me about seeing auras; it was normal for me to do so as their leader. Auras let me know when someone is in pain or really just let me follow my instincts about them. If everyone's were shining bright then I would know it would be okay to push them and keep fighting. Glowing a dark vibrant black on the other hand would be very very bad. Each of their auras was a subdued version of the glow before knowing that you're a Ranger, their color outlined in the color of their element. The element bands of all of them were pulsing. "I want to see elemental use." I said suddenly. It must be what the auras are telling me. I could see a disappointed look in Rebecca's face, she wanted to continue fighting. Others looked more excited. I thought the auras were so strong that some might not even need to morph today to experience the elements. Something Etoile never said anything about, but I know existed, for sure in me and confirmed in Patrick yesterday. We could control it not suited up and that really excited me. I hoped it would for them as well. I showed them how to morph. I didn't know if Etoile instructed those we found the other day about it, but it couldn't be the same as when we did it as a team. I showed them all how to morph and everyone seemed to not know what was going on, maybe Etoile just put it upon them like the first time. But we morphed and oh my god was it amazing. It felt like I was doing it for the first time all over again.

I then made everyone break off into groups based on their elements, letting everyone adjust to their new partners. August and Laura moved towards me. I was glad that we had all three of us here. It meant that if I wanted to go watch some of the others or make sure Anna was okay I could. "Hey guys." I said to them. "How are you liking the first training session?"

"I'm still a bit in disbelief." August said. "This morning when I woke up I thought I would be doing homework after school, not learning that I had super powers. And I find out that some of my friends are Power Rangers and a girl in my APUSH class is out leader. It's a lot to take in." He paused, then thinking and adding. "Not that you wouldn't make a good leader or anything, just that I never saw you as the leader type. You're pretty quiet in the library, always doing homework instead of talking with us." Really I was still reeling on the fact that he didn't call me a friend like Patrick or JT. Yeah I'm a teenage girl, kill me.

"Why did you say yes so quickly? I mean, I love Hannah to death and even I took a day. I'm Laura by the way."

"August. You heard the star chick. It's our destiny, that's not something I would turn away from. Besides how sick would it be to have 'Power Ranger' on your college application?"

"You know you're not allowed to tell anyone— secret identities and the like? It could hurt you and your family." I said quickly and seriously.

"I know. It was just a joke."

"I just had to be sure." I said lightly, with a joking tone. I smiled behind my helmet, knowing he couldn't see it but wishing he could anyways. "Well, we should get started on the element. Is that cool with you guys?"

"Yeah sure, let's move some rocks and shit." August said indifferently.

"Have you seen Avatar: the Last Air Bender?" I asked him. "It's sort of like that. We have one of the more physical elements. It needs a lot of stomping to bring big rocks up and then doing with them as we choose. It doesn't always need to be that forceful though. That's only for large quantities. For right now you should just work on picking up ones that are already out of the ground. What you were doing yesterday." I told Laura.

"And what are you doing, oh master of moving rocks and shit?" August asked.

"I've already spent my time doing this, I've trained for two months before."

"So you're better than us?"

"No, I've just spent more time on it that you have."

"Can I see where I'll be in two months time?" he asked challengingly. I couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or not, but either way I wasn't going to turn down the opportunity to show everyone that I was meant to be a leader more than just for my speech skills. Besides showing off for a cute guy? Hells yes.

"Of course" I said. "Power down!" I demorphed back into my workout cloths and took off my shoes. "Simulation box- earth element- engage!"

A clear window like indestructible set of walls rose up around me a robotic voice from the simulation room said, "Welcome back Taurus. Level of difficulty and challenger type?"

"Level seven, Super Putties I think today."

"Engaging level seven of ten, challenger: Super Putties. Good luck Taurus."

A dozen Super Putties surrounded me. By that point everyone on the team was watching me. This was exactly what I wanted. I stomped the ground, and pulled up disconnected rocks then channeled them to my hands. I ran to one of the Super Putties and punched it with the rock hand, breaking it off but taking the Putty's head with it. I repeated the action with another one, loosing my hands but I wouldn't use them the whole time anyways. The others started to charge at me so I created a wall around me, making a shell that I sank into, then in a sudden burst, pushing out, squishing half of them against the walls. I went to go attack them without any elemental protection. They got a few kicks in as expected. While I was using basic hand to hand against them, I was making a tree grow behind me, then when it was fully grown, vines shot out of it, grabbing limbs of two of the Putties then pulling, splitting them in parts. The last three wouldn't go down without a fight. I had to crush them right away before they could get more blows on me. I ran to the tree and punched it, shaking from the tree top a sharp branch fell and I threw it at one of them like a javelin. I then ran up my tree to the highest branch, climbing naturally and quickly like a squirrel would. The Putties were confused and just sort of watching me. I jumped out from the trees in a series of flips before slamming into a split on the ground. Two giant sheets of earth rose from the ground and similarly to clapping out the fire from Meteor Rider's hands, I clapped mine together, crushing the remaining Putties. I caught my breath as the walls lowered and the voice said, "Simulation: level seven, earth element, super putties by Silver Taurus complete.

"Okay, I'm impressed." August said.

"Thanks." I replied breathlessly looking to where his eyes were through the visor.

"Wow" I heard a few of the others say. There was even a "Holy shit" that I could have sworn came from Patrick.

"So yeah, that's what you guys will be doing in two months time, maybe later, hopefully sooner. Really it depends on how quickly you grasp the whole element thing. Some will be better at it than others."

"What were the things that you were fighting?" Felicia asked.

"Super Putties. We have a collection of all of the henchmen on file that attacked Earth, from Putties to Moogers to now Meteor Riders. You can all go back to practicing. If you want to demorph and work like that go for it. Just keep in mind that it took me about a week to master earth in uniform before using without it. It's not easy. Klaus, Patrick." I called to them "I want you two to go it without the morph."

"Why us?" Klaus asked.

"You already can produce fire from three limbs and Patrick already did it without the morph." They both nodded although Patrick looked slightly annoyed. I was just going to have to get used to that look. But they both went back to their respective areas after powering down.

I walked back over to August and Laura, where August was only shacking rocks, not moving them. "Take off your helmet." I told him. "You'll be able to see and focus on the rocks better." He unclasped it then stared at me for a few seconds before going back to the rocks, still not moving them. "Here," I said softly in a somewhat deep and sensual voice, putting one hand on his back and another lifting his arm, pointing his finger at the rock. "It helps to have a place to channel the energy through. Close your eyes and focus. Just think of lifting the rock." It started to rise. "Good." I could tell he peaked a little because the rock started to drop. "No, no, don't open your eyes." He closed them and the rock regained the air. "Now move it side to side. Keep your eyes closed, now move your arm, slowly." I pushed his arm at the tempo that wouldn't make him loose concentration, the rock moving with it. "I'm going to let go and I want you to open your eyes. Only think of the rock. Nothing else exists right now except for you and it." I gently let go and I think he opened his eyes because it wavered a little, but didn't drop. "Very good. Can you pick up another one with your other hand?"

"I think so, this one is getting easier to maintain." He then used his other arm to pick up another one up. "Sorry about before." He said softly as well while moving the rocks. "I didn't mean to question your authority or ability or anything. It's just, I don't know, I never thought that you would be the leader type. You were acting all high and mighty about being more skilled. I needed you to prove it or something."

"No, it's cool. I wasn't going to get a workout today if I didn't do that." I laughed. "Besides, I think I proved it to more than just you, which isn't a bad thing. I need you all to treat me with respect as soon as possible before the Universal gets here."

"Do you know what his deal is? Why does he need to take over the universe? Isn't almost all of it enough for him?"

"I don't know, my gut reaction is overcompensation." We laughed at my stupid joke. "How are you doing over there Laura?" I asked after I realized that I completely forgot about her.

"Good!" She called back. And she was. She had several rocks circling around her at a pretty fast pace. It would hurt like hell if someone tried to attack her at close range.

"I do think you are worthy. You're going to be a great leader." August said to me. "We're lucky to have you."

"Thanks." I said. I could tell he truly meant it.

Everyone continued to work on their individual elements. I eventually had Laura power down and start at step one without the extra support of the morph.

The next few days went on as normal. Mr. Nealson, my neighbor and principal continued to give me a ride to school; I still went to the same classes, talked to the same people. The only difference was that I now had people to share this secret with, we al smiled at each other in the halls (excluding Patrick to me) if not saying hello.

Adrian and Jerry both said yes, unsurprisingly. Like I've said, it's hard to turn down being a Power Ranger, no matter how unconfident you are with fighting as Jerry's case turned out to be. He was the closest to stereotypical nerd as the team got and unfortunately it meant he wasn't as coordinated or couldn't fight as well as the others. But he was brilliant, especially when it came to dealing with technology, and I could see him helping out with designing new weapons and such.

Adrian was a different sort than anyone else. He tended to hang out with the 'wrong crowd' i.e. those who wouldn't really be suited as Power Rangers. Not that they're bad people, they just don't give two fucks about three fucks. I was happy that he joined. From what little I knew about him he seemed like a good kid. He was a decent fighter, but our enemy would be in real trouble once he got his laser, he's dead accurate with it. He picked up fire quickly as well, I think it's just something that comes with being a principle user, except for August at the beginning, he has quickly improved.

Rebecca and Klaus almost seem disappointed by the addition of their principle, less one on one time for them. Even after a few days I could already see the attraction between them, their flame of love. I was finally talking to August as well, even in school. He would actually walk with me to my third period class instead of any of the other girls that he normally walks with. I guess it's a bond that's even stronger than APUSH, lucky for me.

We still needed our twelfth, I couldn't official make teams until we had him. It wasn't until five days after Jerry and Adrian said yes that JT, Laura and I were in Theater. Sam, basically even lower morals than those I thought of Adrian's friends walked in. It was the first time since Etoile activated the other that he showed up to class. He glowed no a bright blinding color like most of them, but a deep navy that pulled in all the light around him. It was probably what Klaus's glow would have looked like. Laura and I looked at each other then both looked at JT and tried our bests to not leave our mouths wide open. We joked, but come on, he would never be a Power Ranger, I could practically here them thinking it. At that point I just accepted it as a challenge. If Patrick could join and tolerate me then Sam could change everything about him and his attitude… It may be a little more difficult than Patrick.

"There's no way in hell." JT told us.

"We have to try. Maybe he'll say yes?" Laura said.

"We can always find someone else if he doesn't agree to it." Or if I can't force him, I think in my head. "Someone who actually wants to show up and help the world."

"I thought it was destiny?" Laura asked.

"It is, but even destiny isn't set in stone, I told you that before, it's just a very strong influence on the way we go about life. I'm not going to intentionally force being a Ranger onto someone. Especially him."

"So how do we do this?" JT asked.

"I don't think it would be best to gang up on him. I'll talk to him after class then we'll go from there." They both agreed easily, thinking it was best for me to approach him. It was weird that people would just follow me almost blindly now. I wasn't used to it, or any form of someone acknowledging my leadership.

Each of us went about the class trying to be normal, still trying to not stare too much at Sam. Finally when then bell rang I went over to him. "Hey, where's your next class? I need to talk to you."

"Yeah, sure. I only have English but screw that, I wasn't going to go anyways."

"Look," I said when we walked into the library and found a corner to talk. "I'm going to tell you a secret. You need to promise to take it to your grave. It's extremely important that you don't tell anyone, my life or death."

"Alright." He sounded bored, for now.

"I can figure you weren't at the spirit assembly. But do you know what happened there?"

"Nope."

"Alright then. Well aliens made of fire rained down from the sky and attacked. Then a Silver Power Ranger appeared and fought them. Only one Ranger, but a few brave civilians fought along side to defeat the alien things."

"Okay? And you were one of them?"

"Not exactly. I am the Silver Ranger."

He didn't react for a few minutes then finally said, "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because the team is almost assembled. We need one more person."

"Sorry. Power Rangering isn't my thing."

"But it is. You glow dark navy. I'm assuming it's your color. It's your destiny."

"Screw destiny."

"It's not that easy." I was getting annoyed.

"I'm making it that easy. I don't want to be a Power Ranger. You probably don't want me as one anyway."

"Sam, you can't walk away from this. This evil will be here any day now and I won't let innocent people die because we don't have a full team."

"No one is innocent. Find someone else."

"Why don't you want to be on this team?"

"Because I don't owe the world anything. It's been shit to me as well as the people in it."

"I can't believe I'm going to say this," I muttered to myself. "But what if you didn't do this for the people. Do it for the pure satisfaction of beating up alien ass. You get to take out all of your anger without being arrested or suspended again."

He thought for a few minutes again. "You sure know how to appeal to the right side of a guy."

"It's my job. So you'll do it?"

"What the hell. Like you said I get to kick alien ass. I'm in."

"Great. Meet me here directly after school so we can teleport to the Star Chamber." He gave me a confused look and I just said, "You'll understand later."

"If you don't mind I'm going to go smoke now. I need to think."

I was uncomfortable with the idea of having a smoker on the team, but he had already agreed to being a Ranger super easily. Easier than I ever thought it was going to be, I shouldn't push my luck. "Of course. Just meet me here after school." He nodded then went his own way, leaving me standing in the stacks. "Sam!" I called out, getting a thought. He came waking over back to the front of the stack. "Promise me that you'll stick around. At least up until the first attack."

"I promise." He said, and I truly believed him. I got out my phone quickly and sent a text to Laura and JT. 'GUESS WHO JUST GOT US A FINAL RANGER IN ONE GO. THIS GIRL.' I was ecstatic.

I was really starting to feel like I was going to be an okay leader for the first time.


	7. Chapter 7: Sam

Sam

I have no idea why I said yes. Yeah, fighting and not getting arrested for it certainly sounds nice, but that wasn't all of it. At least I hope not. I was down on smoker's corner taking a drag, and I couldn't figure out why I agreed. What was it about that shorthaired girl that made me do it? All romantic feelings towards her went away after freshman year and we were friendly enough in theater, but not so much that I would be willing to change my whole life because of her. I know that I'm going to be counted on even more so than just for school. I don't know if I can do that, but maybe I could try. I was tired of being a fuck up, I realized. I didn't want to be the guy that no one expected anything of anymore. I wanted to actually be someone. And I could with this, with being a Power Ranger.

So I met her after school. A girl I used to know but don't anymore. Really we act like we never knew each other before and it works for the both of us. We met and she told me we would be teleporting, "Do your best not to throw up. I know you're high and I don't know how that will affect the teleportation." With that she grabbed my arm and held onto the necklace around her neck. It was just a pendant with some symbols on it but it transformed to clearly a Taurus symbol with a crystal in the center. We were covered in a grey light and I was temporarily blind.

When I finally recovered my vision, we weren't in the library. Instead, we were in space. I would have thought we were floating if not for the weird sense of gravity. "Trippy." I muttered to myself. "This is the strangest trip I've ever been on."

"It takes some getting used to. The others are still disoriented around here, but to me it's just like walking around on Earth, the most natural thing in the world." Hannah told me.

"Are more people going to show up here?" I asked. I didn't really think of there being other Rangers. It seems worse now. What if I hated one of them? I knew they would be goody-goodies who had to do the right thing all the time, but I hate a lot of those people. I promised I wouldn't walk out, but I don't think I could keep that promise depending.

"In an hour or so. I told people to wait back a little so you could adjust. Even officially receive your powers here with just me if you want."

"Really?" I wasn't expecting her to be so accommodating, she must really be desperate.

"I am. Desperate that is. I need you on this team Sam. And I'm going to make you feel as comfortable as possible to keep you here."

"I said that out loud?"

"For right now, yes. Do you want to take the tour?"

"Actually can I get the power first? The less people around to protest my getting the powers the better." I could already imagine some people not taking too kindly to my being here.

"For now. Like I said, you'll get used to being around them. They'll do the same with you. Hopefully we can all be friends by the end of this if not closer. I'll get Etoile. She's the keeper of this place and our power. Etoile!" she called out.

"Yes little bull?" a million voices answered her sounding slightly female.

"This is Sam. The final Power Ranger."

Suddenly a giant woman appeared. I couldn't really see her because she blended in with our surroundings. "Hello Sam O'Connor. We are Etoile, your contact with the creators of your powers, the stars." I whistled. Damn this is weird. "Step up onto the platform and receive your powers." I went to the only place that looked unlike everywhere else. That is, it was pure technology. Still blue, but noticeably not stars. "Sam, born in the shell of the crab, with the passion of the wanderer, you are the Navy Cancer Ranger." A rush of power ran all over me, better than any high smoke or high that I've ever had and that's saying something. A navy light blinded me and I could feel my clothes being popped out of existence and replaced with the uniform. "You control the power of water and use the shell shield to protect yourself. Use it well Cancer." She faded back into the background.

"Well," I said. "She's something else." I sounded relatively normal regardless of the helmet. "How do I get out of this?"

"Either just unclasp the helmet or if you want to be completely removed of the power, just say 'power down'" I did that and the rush didn't go away. I sort of shook my hands and jumped around. She laughed, more giggled. "You still feel it don't you? That feeling doesn't go away. It dims, but it's always there under the surface." She went to join me on the platform and pressed her hand to one of the panels. It slid open with a hiss and out of it came a necklace similar to hers, but a circle with two swirls and pieces of navy crystal anywhere the silver metal wasn't. "This is your morpher, communicator and teleporter. Basically your link to the Star Chamber and the power. You need to wear it all the time, but it doesn't need to look like this. Twelve kids suddenly sporting zodiac charms right as the Zodiac Power Rangers show up is sort of noticeable. So just think of what you want it to look like and that's what it will be."

"So I'm a necklace guy now?"

She laughed. "You're a necklace guy now. Hold it and think of the location you need to go to teleport. To communicate with everyone else on the team and Etoile just think of them then what you want to say and they'll get it."

"What about morphing?" I asked.

"Let me show you." She said, stepping back with her legs shoulder-width apart, hands on her hips. "Align the Stars! Silver Taurus Ranger." She shouted then moved her arms around until she pulled her charm pendant thing out until I thought it was going to snap off but a second almost intangible one came off of it and engulfed her in her signature silver light and she was replaced by a Power Ranger. She took off her helmet and shook out her hair. "Normally, I'll call out the morphing call, 'align the stars,' then we all morph by order. It'll be natural to you for when to go. No one misses their cue."

There was an awkward pause, she was trying to figure out what to tell me next. "Alright, now how about that tour?" I asked, trying to be friendly and help her out. She smiled and started to show me around the chamber, through the Simulator room and the locker room. Obviously she didn't go in there, just showed me where it was.

When we were in the Sim room she let me start to experiment with water, figuring I needed to get as much make up time as possible before the others got there. While I was working she told me about the Universal and our impending doom. She didn't sugar coat anything and I liked it. She could really tell how serious the whole situation was. It wasn't a game to her or a fun time being a superhero. _I'm going to take it seriously for her_ I thought to myself. I never wanted to leave the suit. It was such a fantastic feeling.

After what seemed like a few days of concentration and moving water around (Hannah said I wasn't awful but certainly needed work) the other Rangers arrived. I retained the air of mystery because I was still morphed with my helmet on, but I could clearly see them coming out of the locker room in their workout clothes. The guys came out first, Patrick Glean, JT Monett, Adrian Butler, I didn't know him that well but we smoked together occasionally, August Russell, a rich bitch who seemed like a douche, a tall guy in blue, and another one in black. They all said hi to Hannah except for Patrick. So far he was the only one that I knew I wouldn't tolerate for long. I didn't hate him enough to quite the team but he certainly wouldn't make it easy here for me.

"New Ranger?" the kid in blue asked. "I thought I was the Blue Ranger."

"You are Jer-bear, he's the Navy one." She used the nickname condescendingly.

"Who is he?" August asked.

"Wait for the girls." Hannah instructed. "Then we'll do introductions." The girls started coming out soon after, first Laura Burrows from our theater class, then Rebecca Rosen, who I dated freshman year after Hannah, a little girl in purple who I hadn't seen before and then Felicia Scott in pink. "Rangers," Hannah started. "This is our final member of the team, the Navy Cancer Ranger."

I didn't feel like waiting for her to instruct me to do something so I took off my helmet. "Hey guys. I'm Sam O'Connor."

"Hi Sam!" the little blondie in purple greeted cheerfully. The rest were silent. Not even the others that I didn't know said anything. I guess they all could just sense how I was a horrible person who shouldn't be there.

"Him? Really Hannah? Fantastic job as leader." Glean almost spat.

"Got a problem Glean?" I sneered, stepping forwards to him. He stepped up as well but before anything could happen Hannah got between us, facing Glean.

"It's destiny, remember Patrick? He was meant to be on this team just as much as you were and I expect you to treat him with respect that you would for any of the other Rangers, got it?" she was using a deep authoritative leader voice. One I figured no one would argue with.

Looking down at her with a cock of his head he said, "Yes ma'am."

"Good." She looked at both of us in the eyes with a message of 'cause discord and I will end you.' I could believe it. She stepped aside and addressed the group. "We have about a week until the Universal gets here if Etoile's prediction is correct. But it's only a guess. He could be here tomorrow for all we know. But now that Sam has joined the team, Patrick and I can break us up into the separate teams of six and four. I want everyone to keep up with training and do what ever you want, hand to hand, element, or weapon. Just stay on task."

"We decide?" Patrick asked.

"Yes. I need someone to check me to make sure I'm not being biased and who better than my second in command?" he nodded. "So back into the Star Chamber for us." They started walking, then got to the field part of the Sim room where Hannah gave the ground a sound stomp and a large chunk of clay dirt rose from the ground. Patty boy gave her a quizzical look. "I'll explain in a minute." She told him.

"Hi!" a voice chirped at me. "I'm Anna, the Purple Ranger! And this is Jerry, he's the Blue one. We're all water user and I- we wanted to see if you needed any help adjusting to the power."

The voice in my head wanted to yell that I was fine on my own and that I didn't need any help, but for some reason "Yeah, some help would be great" came out instead.


	8. Chapter 8: Hannah

**Hannah**

Patrick went first into the Star Chamber, not waiting for me to attempt to make small talk. It would be the first time that we were alone together since the first day he joined the team. "I will not have Sam O'Connor on my team." He said as soon as the door to the Sim room was closed.

"No problem." I replied. I knew he would say something along those lines. "But we should try to balance fighters. Martial arts and weapons skills for the teams of six, then we can rely more on magic and such for the teams of four. But as for fighting, I think you and Sam are the most equal." I took the ball of clay and first divided it into twelve parts then each part formed a name of each of the Rangers. I moved mine to one side of the platform and his to the other. "Round one." I said, "I get Sam and you get Felicia. I think she and I are on the same level. " He agrees and I move her name over. "And because you already have two air users I get JT so we have at least one." I moved his name to my side.

"I think August is pretty on par with JT, I'll take him." I moved JT's over.

"Klaus seems to work really well with JT," I said "I want him on my team."

"Then I'll take Jerry. He's as good with water as Klaus is with fire." Patrick said, and then used the wind to move my clay names to their respective sides.

"Don't take my job." I muttered but still smiled a little bit. He chuckled too. "You can take first pick this time." I told him.

"I want Anna." He said right away. I nodded.

"I'll get Rebecca then. They're both pretty similar. Can I take Laura too?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure." He said. "So that means I get Adrian." I simply flicked my wrist to move the last four names. "Showoff." He muttered this time then chuckled again. "Now for the next teams?" he asked me.

"Hold on, now we tell the computer so that it can analyze and regulate us properly. My team will be Alpha and yours will be Beta." I couldn't simply talk to it like I could in the Sim room, the names needed to be entered manually. I got up from our place on the floor and went to the viewing screen to enter the program.

"So how close are we to how you would have picked the teams?" he asked me surprisingly casually.

"Dead on." I let out one little laugh.

"Why did you need me?"

"So you wouldn't bitch." I actually laughed at my own joke that time and he did too. At least we could joke about how we don't get along. "Also I didn't want to incorrectly choose the teams. It's just nice to know that I was right."

"You always are, aren't you?" he asked cynically. "When it comes to Ranger stuff that is."

"Thank you? I'm not really sure if that was positive or not."

I thought I heard him say, "I'm not either." But it was clearly not meant for mean to hear and I ignored it. I finished entering all of our names in.

"Alright, now for the three teams of four, one from each element." I moved all of the names back into the center of the platform.

"How do we start?" he asked, actually unsure.

"I would say go by element, start with earth for instance." I separated the three of our names. "Then we go from there and build with another element, say water. I would put Sam with Laura because I think they work well together."

"And you don't want him on another of your teams."

"Not true." Partially true, I thought as I moved his name over to Laura's group in between the other two. "I just know they work well together and we could use that for one of these teams."

"So we're not going by principle users? Or level of ability?"

"No principle, but definitely ability. I don't want a super stacked team; I want good users to be in each of the teams."

"Then let's figure out the best of each of the elements. I would say you for earth and Klaus for fire."

"And Jerry for water and JT for air. Sorry." I added.

"No it's cool. I'm a better fighter than him. We all have our strengths." He then got back on topic. "So Klaus or JT with Laura's team?"

"I think I want JT to be the third team leader, you and I are the others obviously. And he knows both Laura and Sam well so I think we put him there."

"So I'm with August?"

"Looks that way. And I get Felicia to complete the air users." I moved the three of them to their teams. "Okay to the rest of the water group. I don't want to have a total girl group so I'm going to say Anna is in August's group and Jerry's in mine."

"Then Klaus is in mine, so we have one of the best as well. And I would put Rebecca in the middle one and Adrian with you." I nodded and moved the rest of the names.

"Great. That was easier than I thought. JT's team one, you're team two and I'm team three." I got up and went to enter the names into the computer again.

"Are these all the same too?" Patrick asked me.

"Actually no. The teams in my mind were way different than the ones we chose. But I like these ones better. I don't really know when we'll actually need these teams, but it can't hurt to have them right?"

Neither of us could think of anything to say, and I know I certainly didn't want to address the elephant in the room. We still hadn't talked about what I did in 8th grade (so I told him that I loved him… in song… on YouTube… then linked it to Facebook. Big deal.) Or how he overreacted (he wouldn't talk to me until I practically forced him then he yelled at me to stay away from him forever. And that he hated me). And I had. Until we became Rangers of course. But it was in the past, and we never talked about it, or talked at all, so the elephant was pretty damn big.

"Can we just forget about what happened before?" I finally said while still playing with the viewing screen.

"I don't think so." He said harshly.

"Well can we at least be civil around the others then?"

"Isn't that what we've been doing?"

"No, we haven't been talking. That's not being civil that's feigning ignorance."

"So what do you want to do? Be bestest buddies and have sleepovers and braid each other's hair?"

"No that's ridiculous. You don't even have enough hair to braid for one and two I know you don't like me and think I'm an awful person and whatever. But as Rangers we need to get along. It's imperative to the team." He was silent. "We can't have a leader who think the other one is a shit Ranger."

"I don't think you're a shit Ranger." He said boldly at me. "In fact, I think you're the best of us, as much as it pains me to admit. It doesn't matter that you've had more time than us, you would still be better. This whole thing just comes naturally to you, but you're still training just as hard if not harder than us. I can't stand Hannah Grace teenage girl. But I have the utmost respect for the Silver Ranger."

"Then only see me as Taurus for now. You don't need to say hi to me in the halls at school, but talking about battle strategies in practice could be useful."

He thought for a while then finally said, "I think I can do that."

I finished entering the last of the names and closed the screen, then called for Etoile. "What do you need little bull and justice?" she asked.

"Conformation on the teams." Patrick told her, simply knowing the reason that I called for her without telling him.

"We will look over then and see if we can determine any problems in the future." Without even doing anything she made the blank viewing screen show the teams. Her eyes glowed similarly to when she force teleported people. I think she was seeing into the future. "Well done, both of you. I see no problems with these teams. The will do well. You may go and tell the rest of the Rangers."

We nodded and Patrick went to the door again, but this time he waited for me so we could walk out together as equals. It wasn't much, but it was a start.


	9. Chapter 9: Anna

And this fight soundtrack is provided by the original composer from the Power Ranger, Ron Wasserman and is the song from MMPR I Will Win. Thanks for reading!

**Anna**

I don't get why Pat had such a grudge with Sam. He wasn't such a bad guy. He seemed like maybe a stoner or something but like he was working hard and listening to Jerry and me and he was learning. We were even joking about and talking well. He was a really fun guy and was even teaching me better techniques for fighting and how to use my height (not a lot) against attackers. Then Hannah and Pat came in and told us our teams. Obviously I wasn't close with any of them before we were Rangers, excluding Hannah but I liked Pat and he was on both of my teams.

Now that I think about it, Pat and Sam were really similar, they both were great fighters, and already dedicated to the team as well as being egotistic. But Pat always seems kind of miserable here while Sam was purely ecstatic just fighting with the others and playing around with water. He did seem to have trouble with his shield though. It may just be because it's new to him like he said, but I think it has more to do with the fact that he didn't like to be defensive. He wanted to go up to bad guys guns a-blazing and not really care about his own safety. Now because of the shield he didn't have an excuse not to look after himself.

I don't look like the most intuitive girl I know. I'm small and blonde and only a freshman and noisy, but I can still see and a lot and figure out a lot. For instance, we all know that some shit happened between Hannah and Pat, and he hated her first because of something she did to really embarrass him, so much that he didn't talk to her for like three years. Then there were the relationships that were forming on the team. Rebecca and Klaus were out right flirting with each other all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if they get together by the end of this week. And then there was Hannah and August. She clearly liked him before the team even started, but I think he was just starting to have the same feelings for her. That one could take a while without a push. One day when I'm feeling really bored here I may try to push it just because. As for little Anna there wasn't any romance in her sight. Yeah, yeah it seems like she may have a crush on Sam but that is in no way a thing at all. He turned out to be a close friend, an older brother. He—

A piercing loud siren went off throughout the whole Star Chamber and Sim room. Red lights were flashing too. "Everyone to the Star Chamber, now!" Hannah ordered us.

"What's going on?" Adrian shouted, as we were moving.

"I don't know!" she replied to him. "Etoile will tell us!"

"Rangers." Etoile said urgently when we got into the Chamber. Her eyes were glowing pure white. "Look at the viewing screen." We all did and gasped. It looked like Armageddon with all of the meteors headed towards the Earth. Some even close to the atmosphere. There were a lot more than the six that came down on the field that first day. We counted a few dozen. "They will land in the park. Go now Rangers. There are civilians that need you. May the Power protect you."

"Let's do this guys." Hannah said, fiercely determined. "Align the stars!" We all jumped back into flank behind her and morphed.

"Red Aries Ranger!"

"Silver Taurus Ranger!"

"Pink Gemini Ranger!"

"Navy Cancer Ranger!"

"Orange Leo Ranger!"

"Yellow Virgo Ranger!"

"White Libra Ranger!"

"Blue Scorpio Ranger!"

"Black Sagittarius Ranger!"

"Green Capricorn Ranger!"

"Gold Aquarius Ranger!"

Finally, it's my turn. "Purple Pisces Ranger!" I loved going last because I felt like I was the link, morphing us all together.

"Let's go guys, one big team." Taurus shouted then used the teleporter on her belt to go out to the park. The rest of us followed in suit.

By the time we got there the Meteor Riders were about twenty feet up and starting to form humanoid shapes. "Water users, station yourselves by the lake, make it a priority to put out their hands. Everyone else, go wherever you feel comfortable and take their fire away from them." Taurus barked orders at us.

"What about fire users?" Leo asked. "We can't really take away their fire."

"Fight fire with fire." Taurus most likely smiled behind her helmet. "Unless you're a fire user don't touch the Riders until their fire is out!" she sent her last warning to us. The Riders hit the ground hard, leaving craters in the ground.

I wasted no time calling up water from the lake and ran it around the Riders, taking out their fire slowly. They would evaporate the fire too quickly and I'd need to call up more, it was being sort of inefficient, but the water would put out their fires fast and we needed that. Scorpio could handle a lot more water than me, so he was doing a little better, but Cancer starting training just today had more problems. We took care of about seven of their hands.

"Keep working! I'm going in at them!" I told the other two. "Fin Slicers!" I called and my twin blades appeared on my forearms, connected to my suit of armor. I wasted no time running to the Meteor Riders and jumped when I got close enough to them, flipping into the middle of a circle of them. "Eat fin assholes!" I started attacking, sliding my dangerous fins on their chests when I got close enough.

While I was attacking them I heard Taurus's transmission to us, "_As soon as everyone is finished putting out the Meteor Riders I want team two protecting civilians around the park. Team three to stay here and take out the rest of the Meteor fuckers and team one to scout out any that may have slipped through. Wait for orders by your team leaders." _

_"I thought you said you didn't think there was a use for those teams?" _Libra shot back over the com playfully.

_"Yeah well I found one." _She replied.I continued to take out the Riders, and rolled out of the way of one of their advances, springing up and throwing my arm across one's neckline.

CLANG! I heard from directly above me. Caner landed right next to me and ashes fell around us.

"You're supposed to be helping people!" I yelled at him.

"You're people! And you needed help! I'm doing exactly as I was ordered." He replied. And more Riders surrounded us; I knew he wouldn't go unless I made him.

"You need to leave. Taurus will be pissed if you don't go protect innocent people. They could die!" He ignored me and threw his shield, Captain America style. I guess he finally figured out how to use it effectively wiping out five of them before it returned to him. "Mark." I said, using his actual name. Now he had me going against Taurus's orders too. "I can handle myself. I'm a big girl." To emphasize the point I kicked two Riders at once, ran over to another and kicked it right in the chest, pinning it to the round with my fin slicer until it turned into ash. He still wasn't budging. But I realized I was doing the same thing. I was ordered out as well to go stalk for Riders who got away. I don't really know what Taurus was doing when she gave those orders. Four people can't handle this on their own. But Libra is normally one to tell Taurus when her plan is crap. Maybe he won't give us the order to move out.

For the first time I looked around at the others because I got a break from fighting. Even before us water users, the air group has all of their fires out and were close to taking care of their Riders. They were all moving together, Gemini would commonly flip over one of the others or they would take care of one of hers occasionally. They were all rotating too. They would switch often and randomly so the Riders were constantly confused.

Working similarly to us were the earth users. Virgo and Capricorn were back away from the crowd and each time they would 'clap' out a Rider's hand Taurus would wipe it out, moving on to the next one. She got held up a lot, one person fighting all of those Riders, but their system sort of worked.

The only Riders who still had fire hands were the fire user's. But I only saw Leo with her sword combating them. I guess the fire in their hands is perfect for fighting the Riders and not getting burned or whatever. A strike of starlight caught on of the Riders, just as a laser beam hit another one. I found Archer and Aries. Each of them was in a tree or bush and shooting their long distance weapons. They must have left Leo as bait—but of course she wasn't very good at being weak and hopeless bait. She was being completely fierce. She was easily the most surprising fighter. I like to think that I was pretty surprising but I have to admit, Leo had me beat. In fact, she did a lot of the time during practice.

I was thrown to the ground by a Rider I didn't notice, guess I was done with team evaluation. I kicked the Rider off of me and as it was flying through the air, not Cancer, but Scorpio with his lance sliced through it. "Nice of you to join us again." He laughed at me.

"I was just looking at how well we were doing." I said defensively.

"And?" By that point we some how ended up in a super cool back to back position, my fists clenched and his gripping his lance.

"We're doing pretty damn well." Which was a good line for us to leap into battle again. There was only about a dozen left for us, piece of cake.

_"Team one, pull out."_ I heard Libra order.

"I'm outta here, blue." I told him. I jumped up and actually walked on a few heads. When I was out of the mass of Riders I messaged Libra. "_Where do you want me?" _

_"You're covering the north with Aquarius. One and two are pairing up." _

_"Got it." _Behind our visors we have basically a computer interface with different functions. There were some bodily regulators, and a com screen to make sure we're getting to the right people and a count down/clock and most importantly bearings and GPS. I was facing the exact wrong way so I made an about face and ran into the woods. "_Gold where are you?" _I messaged.

_"Gold?" _He replied back.

_"Yeah, it's a hell of a lot shorter than saying Aquarius all the time and water carrier just sounds stupid." _

_"I guess. Sending you my location now. I'm just patrolling the north sector of the park. I don't see anyone, Rider or civilian." _

_"Do you want to split up our sector or double team?" _My screen pinged and I got his location.

_"Doesn't matter to me." _I heard him grunt. He must have jumped into a tree.

_"Sorry boss. Doesn't work that way. Chain of command says that you need to make a choice."_

_"Then we say together. I think we're still a little too green to go it alone."_

_"Don't be silly." _I said mockingly. _"neither of us are earth users, we can't be green."_ He was only a few feet from me now.

"Cute." He wasn't using the com now, since we were almost right next to each other.

"Well I am the cute one on the team."

GRRRR! A loud growl came from behind me and a Rider nailed me against a tree. It was a strong one, bigger than the other ones and had a darker coloring to it. I couldn't break it's hold as much as I tried to kick and punch. "Let me go fuck face!" I shouted as I struggled. A golden orb flew from a tree above us and went of as soon as it made contact with the ground. I think he meant for it to strike the Rider, but it distracted it enough to loosen it's grip on me. At least enough for me to move my forearm and slice him with my fin. It growled at me and let me go. Gold jumped down finally during that exchange and just like me, expected it to turn to dust.

It didn't.

"Why isn't it gone?" he asked me. I didn't respond, but attacked again, sliding into it, knocking it to the ground then swung my fin at it's chest again. Still nothing happened.

_"Taurus! We've got an issue!" _I said as I continued to slice at the Mega Rider, finally knocking it momentarily unconscious.

_"What's up, Fish?" _

_"Gold and I have a huge Rider here that won't die by starlight!" _

_"We've got one too!" _Aries called.

_"Same here!" _Virgo answered too.

_"Alright, Cap what's your status?" _Taurus asked but no response. _"Leo. Do you copy? Do you have a Mega Rider?" _Still there wasn't an answer. _"Fuck. Scorpio go with Virgo, Gem with Aries and Archer with Fish!" _

_"I'll send you our location now." _I told just Archer.

_"Be there in a second." _He told us.

"Do you want to try hitting it with one of your fancy explody balls?" I asked Gold.

He nodded and commanded "Starlight super surge!" and reached behind his back like an archer with a quiver. "Get back! This could cause some serious draw back!" I jumped up to a tree branch five feet above me.

"Super Charged!" Archer shouted and let an arrow fly from behind Gold, striking the orb and flying directly into the Rider's head. We were blinded by the brightest light I've ever seen for a few minutes. All I know is that when I got my vision back the Rider was gone and scorch marks were on the ground.

"Did we win?" I asked, landing gracefully on my feet from the trees.

"Looks that way." Archer said, dropping from a much higher branch than me, but landing right on his butt. We all laughed a little. Then in his com he said, "_Taurus it takes two super charge weapon strikes to kill the Mega Rider." _

_"One of you get here now then!" _she shouted. "_Cap and Leo are out and I'm on my own." _

"One of you should go. My fin slicers are useless against these guys."

"Right. I'll go." Gold said, then teleported to wherever Taurus was.

_"Virgo, what's your status?" _I asked.

_"Positive. We found cutting off the head put a good stop to the Mega Rider."_

_"Cancer?" _I asked, opening the com to him.

_"We could use another body here!" _he also sent his location.

"I'm on it." Archer said. "Their fairly close, I'm going to run." He took off, not even bothering to reattach his bow to it's holster.

I decided to take charge and contacted the others. _"When you guys finish with your Mega Riders meet back in the clearing to regroup." _No one answered me and I worried if they would show even though I was on the bottom of the chain of command. But when I broke daylight I saw yellow, white and blue uniforms. As well as gold and silver making their way out of the opposite end of the woods.

"Where are Capricorn and Leo?" Libra asked them.

"I sent them back to the Star Chamber so Etoile can begin healing them. I think both took bad blows to the head and could be dealing with some bad concussions. These Mega Riders are no joke."

"How did you guys take care of yours?" Gold asked the other team.

"It was all Virgo, she thought to electric shock her whip around it's neck and with a little squeeze it went through the thing like butter."

"And it turned to dust?" I asked. "That easily?"

"No?" Scorpio answered hesitantly. "Should it have?"

_"Shit guys! Who left the headless Meteor fucker running around the woods?" _we all heard Cancer shout over the com. We all started to run in their direction until he came back over the com, much more calm. _"Never mind. Situation has been handled. We'll be in the clearing in a second." _It took a moment but we were all cracking up.

In a minute or so they did come out in the clearing, but we weren't paying attention because with the same crack of thunder and lightning and an evil laugh "Congratulations Rangers. You've managed to defeat a few of my dogs. Not without some losses on your own side." The Universal chuckled. "You may have finally formed a full team but in a mere forty-eight hours when my ship touches down on your precious moon and my army is unleashed it will matter not if you have twelve or two thousand. Earth will be mine and you will be powerless to stop it. Spend your time wisely Rangers, there isn't much left!" His hologram faded out with him still laughing deeply at us, an image that I will never forget.

No one moved for a good minute, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Finally Taurus remembered that she still had to lead us and ordered "Everyone back to the Star Chamber." No one moved. "Now!" she said harshly. Still nothing but we were suddenly teleported, clearly by Etoile because I wasn't surrounded by my normal purple. "Power down." Hannah said and we all felt the loss of the power. I immediately nearly collapsed from the muscle strain, not to mention the pain in my back from being thrown into the tree by the Mega Rider.

"Rangers." Etoile greeted us from the platform. She was standing between two stretcher like beds, Rebecca and August on each of them. "A job well done. We are very proud of you."

"How is he—they?" Hannah asked.

"Your two fallen comrades will be fine in a matter of a half an hour. You all may rest until they awake, then we will tell you of the Universal's forces."

"To the Sim room then. There is a place for all of us to rest beyond there." Hannah started off and we all followed, silent. Everyone had some sort of different injury; none of us got away unhurt. Some were cradling an arm, others limping dramatically. All had cuts and bruises that they would probably be able to feel for weeks.

"I have an idea." I said to no one, picking up my pace to almost a run, I couldn't go much faster than that. I went to the pool and gathered some water, focusing on it, willing it to change properties. It started to have a potential glow. "Healing water." I muttered and it took on a full on glow. I didn't want to try it on anyone else incase it didn't work, so I ran the water over my forearms, where the fin slicers cut into them. Something to be mentioned another time. The pain was nonexistent as soon as the water touched me, and the cuts glowed then faded away. I then ran it over my back and the rest of me. I knew I would still be sore, but no more so than a really rough volleyball practice. "I can heal you guys." I said finally speaking to the others. They were all watching me intently. "Sam, Jerry, you guys try it too." I encouraged. Jerry was probably one of the least injured of the group, but Sam's leg was clearly in pain. "Wait!" I said stopping them before they could grab some water. "I have a better idea. Everyone get in the pool." I instructed. "You can all heal better if you get in the water and I can heal everyone at once." Hannah was the first one to wade in; trusting me and the rest slowly went in after her. I finally put the ball of water back in the pool, instead of letting go of it, I forced it to grow and expand throughout all of the water. I could feel myself getting tired as I held the water at its healing state, but I couldn't let go just yet. I was fading fast and as my legs gave out and I started to close my eyes I could feel myself hit the water just as Sam called my name.


	10. Chapter 10: August

**August**

The first thing I was aware of was the splitting headache I was currently sporting. I didn't want to open my eyes, I was even worse than 7 am on a Monday morning. But eventually when I did, I was greeted by the soft twinkling stars around me. Thank god the Star Chamber is fairly dim. I sat up and looked over at Rebecca, still resting peacefully, then next to her slept Anna. I guess she got injured in the fight as well.

The fight.

Rebecca and I were sent to the southern part of the park, patrolling our perimeter when she heard something stomping towards us. A giant fucking Rider came running at us—really me. But she jumped in front of it and began whacking at it with her sword. We were dumb struck when it didn't turn to dust, then it swiped her to the side, throwing her into a tree. Of course I then tried to step up and reclaim some of my manitude, but the Rider's fist came crashing down on me and I went out cold. Then I woke up here with a giant headache.

"Hello Capricorn, how are you feeling?" Etoile asked me, appearing out of the stars.

"My everything hurts, but other than that I think I'll survive. How is Rebecca?"

I would really rather her not die for me, that would suck major balls.

"She will be the same as you. She shall wake in a matter of minutes." Just as she said that, Rebecca groaned.

"What the hell happened?" she croaked, rubbing her eyes, then head. "Never mind. It all just rushed back to me."

"And the others?" I asked Etoile.

"Thanks to young Pisces they are all uninjured, excluding a few sore spots."

"What did Anna do?" Rebecca asked, suddenly really worried and finally sitting up. I was worried too, even though I wouldn't try to show it. Again it would suck to loose a teammate so early.

"She accessed her secondary powers of healing waters and recovered the other nine rangers. Unfortunately she pushed herself over her limit and is now unconscious."

"Secondary powers?" Rebecca and I seemed to ask with the same amount of skepticism together.

"I will explain when the rest of your team joins us. They are currently in their quarters. Yes, each of you has a room here just beyond the Simulation room." Etoile is definitely able to read minds. "I will go and get them and we can begin telling you of the Universal's advisories, as well as how your predecessors fell." She faded into the stars, not even walking through the Sim room like a normal person.

"How are you feeling?" I asked Rebecca.

"Worse than any of my other concussions." She tried to jump off of the bed, but wobbled a little bit nearly face planting until I caught her. She groaned again, and then laughed some "But I can feel my brain almost mending itself, you know?" Our faces were a few inches apart and she was still in my arms. I didn't feel anything like what its normally like to have a girl that close to you.

"Yeah." I said, and then almost shoved her away from me. "It's like the stars are fixing me, making me all right inside. Almost shinning." I thought for a second. "I did not mean to sound like I just smoked a bowl."

She laughed, "No worries." Then it was sort of tense, we didn't know each other and hadn't really talked before becoming Rangers, regardless of the fact that we went to middle school together.

"Thank you." I said finally. "For stepping in front of me to face the Rider on roids."

"You're welcome. I mean, you would have done the same for me. It all comes with wearing the suit."

Then Etoile came back to the main Chamber and Klaus ran out of the locker room, followed soon enough by Hannah, then the rest of the Rangers. None of them looked like they were in a good mood. Sure Rebecca and I got hurt but we were find and we won the battle against the Riders. Klaus was the only one who looked sort of happy, running at Rebecca, then invoking her in a hug and whispered something into her ear. Hannah rushed up to me, looking like she wanted to do the same thing, but stopped herself. I wished that she would. It hit me. That was the reason why I didn't feel anything with Rebecca in my arms, I wanted it to be someone else. Someone who happened to be the amazing leader of the Power Rangers. I felt like I was seeing her for the first time.

"Hey." She said finally, breathlessly. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good. I hear Anna fixed you guys up."

"Yeah, we were pretty surprised, but she easily sped up the healing process by like three weeks."

"What about the giant uber Meteor Rider thingy or whatever you call it that Rebecca and I were fighting?"

"Mega Rider." She corrected. "And I took care of it. All it needed were a few well placed super charged blows and they crumble just like regular Riders." We stood awkwardly, then she finally wrapped her arms around me. "I'm glad that you're okay." She whispered.

"Rangers." Etoile said, gathering us all up and making Hannah and I break quickly apart. I felt really awkward, like everyone was watching us now. "Gather around the viewing screen. We are going to tell you what to expect in the coming days. We are also going to be telling you the history of your powers.

"Long ago on a planet very much like Earth lived sixteen fierce warriors, the best of their kind. Warriors much like yourselves."

"Sixteen?" Felicia asked. "But there are only twelve of us."

""Patience Gemini. As we were saying, in their culture they worshipped us, the stars. We were their gods. In their death they believed that if they lived a whole and proper life they would be able to travel among us, experiencing our wonders.

"When the Universal came to their planet and opened fire and destroyed everything they knew they begged of us to give them aid and we took mercy. Aries, Orion, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Taurus, Andromeda, Scorpio, Draco, Virgo, Libra, Pisces, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Cassiopeia. But we gave them the power too late and their home planet was now another colony of the Universal's and he moved on to the next one. They followed him and began to try and save the universe. By the end of their run the liberated a third of his empire." Someone whistled.

"Eventually, one of the teams of four Rangers tired, not of the fight but of their position on it. They were wary of the side of good and so they changed their minds and joined the Universal. For a price. They were to destroy the other remaining Rangers, show them no mercy and confirm their allegiance to the Universal. Three of the traitors were perfectly all right with this, but one, Andromeda, was hesitant. She had really only left because the rest of her team did. She would not strike her fellow Rangers to kill like the others and eventually resented leaving the Rangers. But her regret was too late, the other traitors launched their final attack on the Rangers and nearly succeeded in taking them out, until Andromeda repented and begged of us to make sure that those on the side of evil did not win willing not to give just her life, but her star journey as well. We could see the desperation in her eyes and granted her request. She was to take a blow from each side then those of evil would be stopped. She had no problem taking one from the evil Rangers once they realized that she was a traitor to the traitors. She needed to convince Aries, the leader of the team at the time, to kill her. He would not do it even though they thought she turned on them. After much pleading he finally did hit her and her ascension began.

"She began to glow as bright as a galaxy, getting bigger and bigger and much less human like. She forced the Rangers to run and escape her deadly light, so they would not face the fate of the ex-Rangers. Her glow was so pure that it attracted and ripped the Ranger abilities of those who were then impure. They lost their ability to wear the uniform and to use their elemental power, the power needing to go somewhere unable to just exist in the universe broke in two and went to the remaining Rangers, even Andromeda's power. She would not need them were she was going. Those became the Ranger's secondary powers, which young Pisces demonstrated today with her healing.

"Your secondary powers will come about eventually, those of you that are principle users are in the line that did not receive extra powers, but you tie the group to your core ones, which is equally important."

"Do you know what our secondary powers are?" Felicia asked again.

"Yes. But you are to find them on your own. We can say that Taurus has already used her power without even realizing it. "

"Really? I did?" Hannah asked, clearly surprised.

"Indeed. Your secondary power is the ability to manipulate plants."

"The over night tree." Anna said from her stretcher bed thing. I didn't even realize that she was up.

"So there's no point in the rest of us trying to mimic Anna or Hannah to get our secondary's?" Felicia asked.

"Correct. But it will come about when you need it. Just be patient."

"This is great and all, but could we get back to the ex-Rangers and how our predecessors died?" Jerry bitched.

"Of course. Andromeda was granted a much greater after life than traveling among the stars. She became one of us. Millions of us in fact, the galaxy you know as Andromeda, named after her."

"That's not too far from the Milky Way. It's the closest galaxy to us." Jerry noted.

"Indeed Scorpio. The Universal came close to the Earth, it was almost time for their final battle. The Milky Way was one of the last galaxies to be untouched by the Universal and the Rangers, perplexed but grateful of what Andromeda did for them realized they must do the same to stop the Universal. They did not wait for his armies to attack yet another helpless planet, but instead infiltrated his ship, getting close to him and then giving their powers back to the stars. They left the Universal extremely weak and in a coma like state. We now had their powers once more for when he awoke we would be able to give the abilities to a new group of warriors."

"And that's where we come in." JT said.

"Yes quite." Etoile said. "Now onto the three. Though Andromeda did manage to take Orion, Draco and Cassiopeia's Ranger powers, they still retained some traits, and the Universal provided them with others like super strength and speed. Each was a great marksman and trained their whole lives in combat and weaponry.

"Orion is the most versatile of the three with weapons. From mythology you know him has the hunter and is skilled in all areas around that including tracking and swiftness.

"Cassiopeia is quick and nimble. She is as beautiful as she is deadly and is not afraid to fight un-honorably. She has the most fire in her and will not quit on an enemy until they are dead.

"Finally, Draco. He is now seated at the right hand of the Universal and with good reason. He is the best and most vicious fighter in the Universal's legion. He is willing to do anything to win, even selling his soul to regain his fire power."

"So he's a fire user?" the guy fire user who wasn't Klaus asked. I swear it was the first time I heard the kid talk.

"Not like you are. There is a reason he is called the dragon, he breaths fire and it cannot be put out like the hand of a Meteor Rider. However, it does not have the same acidic properties of their hands, nor is it the star fire that our fire users posses. He will be the worst and most challenging advisory in the coming battles."

"What about his armies? The Universal make it seem like he has legion upon legion waiting to strike."

"That he does. Not only of Meteor Riders, but of countless other foot soldiers used against past Ranger teams. The Meteor Riders and especially the Mega Riders as you have deemed them are the best of those foot soldiers though and you can clearly handle them. That is all that we have for you today. Taurus? Do you have anything to add?"

"Actually yes. Nicknames. We didn't do a bad job today not saying names but we can't be shouting them in the middle of battle especially in a public place."

"I didn't hear anyone say a Ranger's name." Patrick said, countering her, again. It was the first time he spoke, lost in his own thoughts I guess. But he would never miss the chance to make Hannah look bad. I still have no idea what that's about.

"Yes. But I heard several different nicknames for a few of us. I think it would be best if we only had one, make everything simpler. Either your symbol, zodiac or color, you know? Like for example mine would be Taurus."

"I wanna be Fish!" Anna said, actually excited. The only one.

"Archer." Klaus nodded.

"Gold." JT.

""Can I be Gem?" Felicia asked.

"I'm fine with Virgo."

"Leo."

"I guess Blue for me."

"Cap." I said. "I'd rather not be called sea-goat."

"Scales." Patrick said, finally going along with the plan.

Neither the Ranger whose name I can't remember or Sam said anything. "What about you guys? Adrian? Sam?" Hannah asked them.

"I'll just go with Aries." Adrian— that was his name—said.

"I don't want to be called Cancer, Navy, or Crab." Sam said, making a disgusted sort of face.

"I got it!" Anna exclaimed. "Shellshock! Because you know, crabs have shells! And you have a shell shield!"

"That's cool. I like it." Sam agreed.

We didn't know what to do from there and were just sort of awkwardly standing. "What now fearless leader?" I asked Hannah, smiling.

"Now we go home. There isn't any time to train and I'm sure your parents are expecting all of you. Not to mention homework." A few of us groaned. "What? Just because we're super heroes now doesn't mean that school isn't important. We can't be Rangers forever, and real lives need to be maintained." Most of them were quick to teleport out, wanting to go home. Doing me a favor and leaving Hannah and I alone.

"Thanks for saving me, back at the park." I told her.

"Of course. All in a days work. I didn't do it alone, JT helped too. He, Anna and Klaus were actually the ones to figure out how to get rid of the Mega Rider. Really I was just bothering it until he got there to help." She was trying to be bashful but I wanted her to be proud of what she did.

"Still, you probably gave it quite the fight. I mean you didn't just take one hit from it then were out cold for the rest of the battle."

"I did take one of its arms off, but it didn't slow down easily. They don't die by decapitation or hacking off various limbs." She laughed, recalling a memory. "You should have heard Sam scream and cuss when one of the Mega Riders came at him without a head."

"You really trust him? To be a Ranger?" I will say I was surprised by that. I only knew Sam by reputation but still, I've seen him enough and knew who he hangs around with to tell that it was not the crowd to be saving little kids and doing good.

"I trust him with my life. I'd trust all of you with that. I need to. We all need to for that matter, the time will come rather soon when our team will be tested and we can't be a good Ranger team unless we have faith in each other." She said wisely.

"You really are the best leader. If it were up to a vote, I would be behind you one hundred percent. I would be an awful leader. I don't know if I could be so openly supportive of everyone on the team all the time."

"Shouldn't you be getting home? Your parents are probably worried." She changed the subject, looking away from me.

"It's just my mom. But she's cool. She just thinks I'm with William. He's probably more worried that she is. He might think I finally got a girlfriend or something." I laughed. Of course William knows I don't have a girlfriend, but he doesn't know that I like Hannah. Hell I didn't know that I liked Hannah before we came to the Star Chamber today. She didn't say anything and I could tell that she was bothered by the girlfriend comment.

"Did Etoile tell you what the Universal said to us when he appeared after the fight?" she asked me, completely changing the subject again.

"No, what did he say?"

"That he was close, in two days his armies will be here. The war will begin."

"What?" I said, shocked. My mind started to race, two days wasn't enough time. "I better get back then. Talk to my mom, read all 400 pages for APUSH." She seemed lost deep in though, but still popped a cute little half smile.

"APUSH always comes first. See you tomorrow." She said distantly then muttered, "Better call Rebecca too. Shit." She tuned to the viewing screen and began working.

"Aren't you going to leave too?"

"Eventually. I just need to tell Rebecca about what the Universal said and then record a video journal entry of the fight today. We need to remember all of this."

"Alright. Sweet dreams." I said, grabbing my backpack from where we put them on the side of the platform then teleported out about a block away from my house.

I was thinking how to best go about my next two days as I walked home. Tonight I would be with my mom. School I would get the chance to talk to all of my non-Ranger friends, then after school I would be late to training to hang out with William. I'm not stupid. I know there is a very good chance that I don't survive. Now I get why everyone was so somber and quite and the reason that Etoile was telling her story. There was an Atlisian weight pressuring down on my shoulders. Sure it was split twelve ways, but the weight of the world divided by twelve is still a shit ton more than any teenager should carry. If we don't protect the world, everyone could die or be enslaved. The only thing stopping that from happening were some kids who had only had their powers for less than two weeks. The odds were not in our favor. I finally walked up to my drive way, passing the first two garage doors to the one that was actually closest to the basement door inside.

"Hey mom!" I called once in the house.

"Hi honey!" she called back on the main floor, but I couldn't say where. "Dinner will be ready in a half hour!" I guess she was in the kitchen.

I went up to my room and did my APUSH reading, for once looking forwards to it. Slavery could at least take my mind off of the possible enslavement of the human race.

So I then had a nice dinner and conversation with my mom, telling her that I loved her by the end of it. Of course she thought something was wrong with me because when would I ever tell my mother that I loved her but whatever. I may only get one more night to tell her after this and she's done a lot for me since dad died. I realized that I don't think I'll ever be able to thank her enough even if I survive this.

I returned back to my room and pooled out a bad and started smoking it. What else could I do? Mom never checked on me, she was cool about giving me space. Maybe it was growing up in Oregon but she never questioned the smell in my rom, just as long as it didn't spread to the rest of the house. So I was alone with my weed and my thoughts, mostly of death.

After a while they turned to Hannah, to a girl I hadn't really given a second thought to outside of her being intelligent and in my APUSH class and good to talk about my love and her hatred for Hemmingway during study hall in the library. Even then she never really talked to me, more so with JT and sometimes William. Mostly she was deep into reading a book, only occasionally commenting on our conversations, but never passing up the chance to give me an odd look when I said something crude or stupid.

But then suddenly boom. Day one of being a Power Ranger she showed me something totally different. She showed me how fighting can be really sexy and she's a great leader who's tough when she needs to be and always ready to back her teammates, even against some of her teammates, and she taught me how to use my element, which in itself was the most sensual experience of my life. But that only gave her the second and third thought, okay and a fourth whenever I needed some August time, but today, today changed it.

It wasn't even so much the fact that she saved my butt, but how she kept her composure. Through all of this she was the strong leader looking death in the face. Maybe she broke down later on when no one was there to see, which made me sad, a surprising fact in itself. But even if she did, she knew that everyone else was falling apart. I didn't even know the news and I could see it. It was pretty clear. But if their leader fell apart I could see them all just going nuts.

And okay she was cute too, I'm not going to lie about that. She wasn't drop dead gorgeous like in the movies and shit but she carried herself in a way that knew who she was and was proud of it. She didn't feel the need to fit in with the Mt. Lebanon stereotype either. Hell for the longest time she had hair shorter than mine, probably just to throw her middle finger to the school and all of the people in it.

So I apparently developed a new crush that I didn't even know about until an hour ago. It hit me like a fucking frying pan. I couldn't wait to tell her. Hell in two day's time I'm not going to be alive, chances say, and she's not going to survive then either. And god damn it all if I wasn't going to make her last day special. How did I know that she liked me? I didn't. I'm not a mind reader. I know I'm attractive, I've had plenty of girls tell me that. And she's a girl who's clearly not blind, at least she's noticed how attractive I am. I'd caught her looking at me a few times during class. So at the very least I had that. But I'm smart too. We've had some really great talks in the library and even better ones after becoming Rangers. There are so many connections formed between us being Rangers and earth users being the big ones, but even school APUSH bonds kids all the time, and our time in study hall. I made up my mind, I was going to tell her after training tomorrow. And she was going to accept it and return my crush, I made up my mind about that too.

I've already learned a few things by being a Ranger. One: trust those who work with you, your life is in their hands. (Hannah taught me that tonight) Two: the best people for the job aren't necessarily the most obvious ones. (A good few on the team) Three: carpe diem, because two days from now you're gonna be dead.


	11. Chapter 11: Hannah

**Hannah**

"Hey guys," I called to the Rangers once everyone teleported in from school. No matter where I went or saw everyone, we were all quiet today. I hated it. Our mortality was suddenly thrown onto our shoulders, as well as the world and we were finally feeling the weight of it. It honestly even scared me a little bit.

I didn't plan on keeping them for long, but no one knew that yet. They all expected me to make today as normal as possible before our first official alien attack. But I knew that one more day wouldn't help much, especially when I could sense how emotionally charged we all were feeling. "Etoile is conferencing with the Stars and won't be here today, so we're on our own. But before we start there's something important we as a team need to do."

"What's that?" Felicia asked.

"Well," I started uneasily. "I want to be sure that we're prepared for anything that may happen tomorrow. I know we're going to do our best to make sure the Earth is safe, but sometimes our best isn't good enough. Sometimes we don't make it back from battle. I already talked to Etoile about it and she agrees that this is a better idea than having a computer pick a 'teenager with attitude' to take one of our places." I kept taking deep breaths through the whole speech, I didn't want to talk about any one of us dying, but of course as the leader I needed to say them.

"What's the plan Hannah?" August asked gently.

"I want everyone to think of someone, a person they could trust their deepest secret with or someone that has great heart or athletic ability. Obviously a teenager, one of your friends or maybe a sibling, even someone you might not really know in one of your classes. Someone you think could be one of us, a Power Ranger. We'll submit names into the computer and then as a team look at all of the choices and agree if we think they're a good choice. This was Etoile's agreement with the plan, the computer still picks one of them, but it's from a pool of twelve that we can agree that we trust. So August's choice might not wear green, but orange. Is that cool with everyone?" After some consideration everyone agreed. "When you've decided who you want to make as an alternate, go to the platform and type their name. The computer will develop a profile for them and once everyone has one in, we can review all of the candidates." Right away Sam, Patrick, August, Laura and Anna went up to the platform to insert their choices. I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Hey Hannah?" Adrian asked me.

"What's up Aries?"

"I don't feel right picking someone. I haven't been here for that long and I don't want to wrongly choose someone for Rangerdom without really knowing them. So is it cool if I just don't make a choice?"

"Of course. Whatever you feel the most comfortable with." As we were talking JT, Rebecca, Klaus, and Felicia joined the line. The only person still deciding was Jerry. I didn't want to pester him in this, it was an extremely personal and important matter and I was glad he was taking it so seriously. I walked in line behind Felicia and we all were silent in our own thoughts.

As everyone began to move along the line finally got to me. I stepped up to the platform and typed my choice, _Johnny Heagie. _I didn't know the boy well at all, he just moved here this summer from the middle of nowhere. But he was an excellent basketball player and I sort of used him for practicing reading auras in homeroom and first period, his could glow like one of ours. I moved out and let Jerry get to the keyboard and put in his choice for the last one.

"Alright guys, gather around the viewing screen. Give the computer a few seconds to process its final input. It will randomly start to list them once it's finished. And we only have eleven candidates because Adrian elected to not chose one on the grounds of not knowing enough people in Mt. Lebanon."

The computer pinged and brought up its first name. "Sean, age 17 involved in mixed martial arts and boxing." Those of us who knew Sam, knew Sean. They were inseparable. Of course he chose Sean.

"If anyone ever has any objections to the candidates then speak up, otherwise we just keep moving." No one said anything negative about Sean. I was shocked. I figured Patrick would bitch about him, but he just remained silent.

"William, age 17 involved in crew and theater" Silent. I was betting that August chose William, but it could have been JT as well. William and August are best friends, but he and JT are pretty close as well.

"Caroline, age 16 involved in student council and dance company" Never mind. August chose William. Caroline was definitely chosen by JT. No comments.

"Julia, age 18 involved in gymnastics" One of Laura's gymnast friends.

"James, age 17, involved in technical theater company." Patrick's choice, I think. Possibly Felicia's.

"Tresa, age 17 involved in theater and forensics." Jerry's choice. Some people may think she was mine because we were all friends, but she and Jerry were especially close.

"Walter, age 17 involved in cross country running and track and field events" Klaus, they got close on the German trip last summer I guess.

"Jonathan, age 16 involved in basketball and track and field events." I was secretly relieved when no one said anything about my choice, but then, no one said anything about any of them yet.

"Sarah, age 16 involved in choir and music events" Felicia's choice. It makes more sense that Jimmy was Patrick's.

"Sara, age 15 involved in volleyball." She and Anna were best friends, I almost knew she would pick Sara.

"Trevor, age 17 involved in theater and track and field events." I think I was the only one who knew how close Rebecca and Trevor were, I knew she would choose him too.

"No objections then?" I asked once the slide show was over. Everyone shook their heads. "Then you guys are free to go. No practice today." They all gave me odd looks. "Practice wouldn't help any of us today. I know I'm not in the right mind to do it, and I doubt any of you are either. Go home, go out. Spend time with people you love before tomorrow. It's going to be rough from here on out. We all could use a little bit of rest time." August was the first one to jump on the opportunity, saying goodbye to everyone and teleporting out, followed quickly by Sam and Patrick. Everyone sort of milled about a bit, Rebecca and Klaus finally teleported out together and Felicia and Laura were having a conversation about boyfriends, more importantly what they were going to do with them. Both were trying to figure out if it was better to break it off with them, or take the final step. I guess both of them came to a conclusion because they soon left.

"Hannah." Jerry said, taking me out of my own little world. "I'm going to go hang out with Anne and people, our non-Ranger friends. You should come with me."

"No it's okay. Thanks for the offer though."

"You could always go to church with Anna and I." JT offered. "A little more prayer couldn't hurt the team."

"I'm gonna go call my family in Maine, I'll see you guys tomorrow." Adrian said. He didn't live with his parents, he lived with his aunt and uncle here. We all said goodbye and he teleported out.

JT, Anna and Jerry turned back to me, waiting for my response. " No, you guys go ahead. I'm actually going to go have dinner with my family." I lied. But they seemed to have bought it and left. When I was sure everyone was gone I began to work on little things, anything that could take my mind off of tomorrow.

* * *

I was working on everything that I could in the Star Chamber. I really didn't want to be home alone on the possibly last night of my existence, the one that I was questioning myself the most. So I was doing my leaderly duties, making sure there weren't any spots in the starlight coat on our weapons, that our suits looked shiny and awesome, trying to see if I could develop a star shooter for all of us to carry around. The star shooter was an idea of mine. We could all have a gun to help our long range out. I also wanted to see if there was a combination of our weapons that could be made, much like all of the other teams. I wanted to look for zords too. I don't know if I thought we had them or not, but we were a Power Rangers team, how could we not?

Lastly I just went into the Sim room and worked out. First doing normal routine workout things, punching bags, lifting some weights. I knew that fighting normally was not my strong suit. And hell, when some really fun songs came on I couldn't help but groove. But I couldn't last long without working on elemental powers. I love playing with earth, it was always and will always be my favorite part about training. I was just becoming closer with it, sitting in the grass wearing my signature gray yoga pants and colored sports bra. I dug my nails into the ground and just focused, thinking of trees sprouting up everywhere, one for each of my teammates and one for Etoile. It was like a memory garden. More trees started to raise, one for each of my friends, hell even two for my siblings and then one for my parents. I didn't want to remember them too much…

"How long have you been here?" I asked the person standing behind me. I was so connected to the ground that I could literally feels the vibrations of another person standing near me.

"You were still dancing to Lady Gaga when I teleported in." came his reply. It was August.

"I should be thankful that telephones and video recording devices don't work here right about now shouldn't I? That would not be a fun one to resurface onto the Internet."

"You know that we can't take video of ourselves at the Star Chamber. You can't tell anyone about secret identities and the like? It could hurt you and your family."

I know. It was just a joke." I was still tuned into the ground but I could almost feel his smile through it too. I didn't want to open my eyes and get up, but I felt like I should because he must have a reason to be here and not with friends or loved ones or something.

"What are the others up to?" He asked me, figuring I knew where everyone was, which I did.

"Anna and JT are at church, Felicia is breaking up with her boyfriend, Laura is sleeping with her boyfriend, Sam is probably getting high, Adrian is calling his family, I think Patrick is with his family, Jerry is with his friends, and Rebecca and Klaus are together I think."

"Huh, I don't think I would have seen that coming. Klaus and Rebecca that is." I finally decided to stand up, getting at least a little bit less connected to the earth.

"Really? They totally bonded on the first day of training. They've been inseparable ever since. If Adrian decided to stay that day then, things may have been different. Sometimes I feel bad for him you know? He sort of got shut out of that group." I did notice it, the only other group to not be completely organized and connected was the waters and they just all weren't put together.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Lucky for us we all work so well together over in the Earth element."

"Yeah." I paused trying to think of the most eloquent way to ask him, "So what exactly are you doing here? Shouldn't you be doing homework or something?"

"I could be asking you the same thing little miss. You're still in high school just like the rest of us. But I did already do all of that. After school I went to visit my dad."

"But he's—"

"Dead yeah. Also in Oregon. But that's the wonderful thing about teleportation and being a Power Ranger, I can go to his gravesite at the vineyard and tell him that I'm a Power Ranger, among other things. It was good to talk to him for some time, even say that I could be joining him soon."

"Not on my watch." I said quickly, finally opening my eyes and looking at him. "I will always do my damnedest to make sure that you all get home to your families at the end of the day."

"What about you? Who's going to make sure that you're going to get back to your family?"

"My parents travel and my siblings don't live here. I don't have a family to go home to." I reveled. It was the first time I told anyone anything about my home life. That normally is for me only.

"No wonder you're here all the time." He said softly. He suddenly wrapped me into his arms. I did not mind in the slightest, I got to breath in his scent a little.

"It's really not that bad. I'm used to it." I said into his shirt. "Besides it means more work gets done around here."

"But you shouldn't be the only one here all of the time."

"Why not?"

"Aren't you lonely?"

I pulled away from him, walking to one of my trees. "When I'm not in the Sim room surrounded by trees and my element I'm in the Star Chamber with all of the stars and the cosmos around me. It's a lot less lonely here than it ever was in my house."

"It makes sense." He nodded. I was back to my trees though. Each one looked too alike. People needed their own distinguishing characteristics to last in each memory. I put my hand on one of them and it started sprouting orange flowers, Rebecca's tree. I continued to walk around to all of the trees and gave them flowers as well until I was in the outside of the new grove, leaving August in the middle.

"So, last night before the biggest evil we're ever going to face arrives on Earth." I called to inside the trees. "What are you going to do with it? Spend it with your mom? Or" I reluctantly added "a girlfriend or someone?"

"I'm here aren't I?" He said softly, standing right behind me. I didn't even realize that he moved from inside. He was getting much better at moving with the ground not just on top of it.

"Oh." Was all I had time to say before he pushed me against the tree and his mouth on top of mine. I didn't feel nearly as bad about smelling him before. Now though, he was everywhere, nothing existed except for him and me. My back was rubbing uncomfortably against the tree but I didn't even notice until August pointed out the scratches later. I only felt his mouth on mine, his hands running up and down my arms. I pulled back, knocking my head against the tree, providing some clarity. "Why now? Why me? Just, why?"

"Why not? This may be our very last night and I couldn't think that you never knew how I felt about you." He kissed me again, then broke it, leaning his forehead against mine. "I remember when it hit me how I felt about you. I knew you from working in APUSH, saw how unique and intelligent you were. But it wasn't until the day JT brought me here and you gave us the demonstration when I realized how special you were, how brightly you shined. And I needed that. I needed you." This time I kissed him, standing on my tiptoes to reach his mouth. Even though I thought I was tall, it still wasn't enough height to meet him. I wrapped my arms around his neck to even us out and pull him down.

I whispered against his lips, "I don't mean to sound cheesy but I would look at you in APUSH and study hall and wish that you would see me. That you would really see me."

"I didn't. I'm sorry but I didn't. I do now. And I want to make up for every minute of it because you're blinding me, that's how much I see you." He scoffed at himself. "I'm never usually this gross and sappy. Hannah Grace you are changing me."

I smiled. "For once I can tell that that is not sarcasm."

We spent the rest of the night talking, and of course a little kissing as well. But it was nice, the most perfect way to not worry about the end of the world.


	12. Chapter 12: Rebecca

**Rebecca**

I slept like a baby.

I know it seems wrong because I should be freaking out about our impending doom. But honestly I forgot about it. I guess that's what happens when you fall asleep in the arms of your dream guy.

Don't jump to conclusions, nothing completely happened but still we just told each other how we felt then some kissing and okay maybe we did go that far but you would too if you only had one more night to live. So yeah, falling asleep in Klaus's arms was a dream that completely took my mind off of the upcoming battle tomorrow.

I was disappointed to find that he wasn't with me in the morning until I noticed a not on my pillow:

_My Lioness,_

_I needed to get back to my house before my parents realized I wasn't sleeping in my own bed. I wouldn't have left you if they wouldn't freak out at me. You looked so peaceful I didn't want to wake you when I left. Who knows when any of us will be feeling peaceful any time soon? Know that I do not have any regrets about last night. Even if the Universal wasn't attacking today I still wouldn't have any regrets. I love you and I'm so glad that we don't need to hide our feelings and dance around each other any more. The night is going and so must I. _

_ All my love,_

_Klaus. _

He wrote something in German underneath his signature and I made a mental note to ask him about it at school. I first put my robe on so I wasn't walking around my room naked and went to my closet to find something to wear for the day. Over the past few weeks it seemed like my closet was suddenly filled with orange and I had no desire to wear anything else. I settled on a pair orange jeans with a simple black tee shirt and combat boots, wanting to wear my boyfriend's color as well, then topping the outfit off with my morpher, disguised as an orange metal Star of David that fell right before my boobs. So far no one questioned my Jewishness and I continued on as normal with a "new" necklace and sudden love for orange.

I treated it as any normal day, or at least I tried to. My mom didn't seem to find anything different or odd and she's always one to pick up on that, maybe it was just the lack of coffee in her system. When she dropped me off I saw Hannah and Mr. Nealson walking form the teacher parking lot together and joined them. Hannah was in skinny jeans and her grey converse, with a gray shirt under her black leather jacket. Her morpher was a pendant of her name in Mayan letters on a long chain.

"Good morning Principal Nealson, hey Hannah."

"Hello…."

"Rebecca. Rosen." I told my principal, he couldn't ever remember my name.

"Hey Bec." Hannah was sounding rather calm, happy even.

"Why are you in such a good mood?"

"What reason is there not to be?" she almost made bug eyes at me, pointing subtly at Mr. Nealson.

"I mean it is the morning. By default you shouldn't be all happy and smiley."

"You're hardly one to be talking." She replied.

"Is you're good mood the same as mine?" I finally caught on.

"I think so!" she grinned and we both shrieked.

"Ladies if we could refrain from screeching in the school that would be best." Mr. Nealson chided us.

"Sorry, Principal Nealson." We said in synch. Then I said, "Tell me everything!" as we turned down the hall, away from him, ignoring the grimace on his face.

"August came to the Star Chamber last night while I was working and meditating and we talked about today and all of the sudden he had me up against a tree that I made and he was kissing me and it was beautiful!" she managed to say all in one breath. "Then we talked some more and kissed a lot more and oh it was just perfect."

"Did you guys, you know, go all the way?" I asked her.

"Oh god no… we just got together..." Then she realized why I asked. "You and Klaus had—" I slapped my hand on her mouth so she didn't should it out to the whole school. When I took it off she said, "Sorry. It's just, yikes you know? I figured you guys were going to confess your love and all that but yowzah. Do you feel any different?"

"Not really, more so from opening up and us finally getting our feelings out there than from the actual sex."

"Yeah." She smiled.

"You ladies are looking particularly cheerful this morning." JT greeted from behind us. "How high are you? Does August have you under the influence of marijuana? Because that's bad."

"No he does not have me under… you knew?"

"He couldn't shut up about it yesterday during APEGS, it's a wonder our com didn't breach radio waves."

Hannah turned back to me. "So tell me how it was with Klaus, before the part that I probably don't want too much detail about."

"Well he was apparently planning it for a week or so and took me to a really nice picnic in the park, far from where we fought before, by the overnight tree."

"You made out with him under my tree? Son of a bitch knew I made it…" Hannah asked, then muttered under her breath.

"Your tree?"

"I made it when I first learned about my powers."

"You and Klaus finally hooked up?" JT asked, finally catching on.

"You just figured that out?" Hannah said sarcastically.

"What? It's the morning and I'm a guy. Bad and bad combination for trying to translate girl speak." We walked to Hannah's locker and saw Adrian.

"Morning red." She called to him and smiled. Hannah and JT went back to talking and I was the only one who noticed Adrian take off his red headphones and conveniently take off his coat to look right at Hannah and smile. I guess no one told my red friend about her and August.

He started asking her "So Hannah, I was wondering—"

"Morning Hannah, people I couldn't care less about." August inconveniently for Adrian walked up behind us and wrapped his arms around her.

JT was going to protest August not caring about him but I interrupted, "What's this? August Russell actually showing up to school before the late bell?" We were in the same homeroom and he never showed up, ever.

"Well, I wanted to see all of my friends for a longer period of time. Who knows if I'll see them again." He was trying to be morbid but none of us bought it.

"Yeah, friends." JT smacked his shoulder and looked down at Hannah but she only said, "What? If you get to school on time to see me I don't care what excuse you use to make it seem like you're not whipped already." She giggled and they kissed briefly.

"Is this the hangout now?" Jerry asked, walking towards us. He broke Hannah and August apart, which Elleson must have been glad for; he looked like he may have been sick.

"I guess for some of us J-Popes." I replied, using my nickname for him.

"I mean it's not a bad place. It's sort of in the middle of the school." JT offered.

We all stood around, August holding Hannah to his chest.

"So…" Adrian started "Today's the day."

"I think we can do it." Hannah said confidently. I don't know if I believed it, but she truly did. It was incredible how she was always so positive about the team.

She looked up at August for help and he said, "Yeah, if we could barely handle four Mega Riders then a legion from hell shouldn't be a problem." Hannah playfully swatted behind her, hitting him in the chest.

"I'm with Hannah." Eagle scout JT said. "With teamwork we can do anything. Super powers sure as hell don't hurt though." We all laughed.

"What's so funny?" Klaus came up to us and kissed my cheek.

"Hey." I told him softly.

"Do you want to take a walk with me?" he whispered in my ear.

"Hey guys, we're going to head out. I'll see you around." I told everyone. Hannah wiggled her eyebrows at me. As we walked away I told him "I loved your letter and last night. Everything was just perfect."

"I thought so too. And I am really glad that your parents had that synagogue meeting. I don't know if I could have gotten the courage to do that."

"What did the German mean? At the bottom of the letter?"

"It said we will live in the moment of love forever. Its stupid. I just thought that since we have our job we cannot think too far into the future, but still forever."

"It's so sweet. I love it. And I love you." We kissed and did so for a little until the bell rang. He conveniently walked be to my homeroom while we were talking. He was way better at keeping track of time than I was.

"Come on, Rebecca. Let your lover boy get to his class." August joked.

"Shut up, I'm sure you're just dying to have your tongue down Hannah's throat." I shot back.

"Yeah, what's your point?" he said nonchalantly.

Klaus looked at his watch, "I do really need to go now." He bent down and kissed me briefly before running off.

"Bye Cupid!" August called to him. "You know that was funny." He said before I could protest. "And it was only a subtle hint at his extracurricular activities."

"Whatever. If someone figures him out I'm telling Hannah on you."

"I'm so afraid."

"Of her? You should be. You've seen her fight, she could kick your ass no problem."

"Could. But won't. Boyfriend perks."

"How did that come about? I mean, I know her side, just not yours."

"To be honest, it wasn't until two nights ago. I caught you and didn't feel anything at all."

"Which is new?" I asked, pretending to be repulsed.

"No, I mean, just guy reaction stuff. Your shirt was all low and I don't mean like I was commonly looking down there but I didn't even want to. Then I saw her and all of the stars around her were dim in comparison, then exploded and all that ever existed was her." He thought about what he was saying. "Again, I swear I'm not high all the time." The late bell rang and our crazy strict homeroom teacher forced us to say the pledge and be silent during announcements. When homeroom was over August and I said goodbye and I went through the first part of my day, not really focusing on anything because today was a shitty day for thinking and focusing.

But it all started to go down when I was in English, seventh period. The lights started flickering and we just figured it was construction or something, then they went out completely. No one really started panicking until the earth started shaking.

"We're in Pennsylvania! How the hell can there be an earthquake?" someone shouted.

I opened up a com with the Rangers. "I think this is it guys!" I didn't even bother thinking it, plenty of people were shouting and muttering to themselves. I didn't stand out at all.

_"Don't be so quick to jump into battle."_ Hannah warned. _"It could be just a freak coincidence."_

_"Umm Hannah?"_ Julia spoke up. _"Have you looked out the window recently?"_

_"No, JT, August and I are down in the library. What's out there?" _

_"Hell."_ Sam answered. I went to the window of my classroom and gasped. I know Hannah called the first attack apocalyptic, but this was way worse. Millions of fireballs were falling and the sky burned. I hadn't heard the Universal actually speak before like the other Rangers, but I could hear him cackling evilly. The Meteor Riders all seemed to be falling towards downtown and I knew that was where our battlefield would be.

_"They're all heading downtown!"_ JT reported, confirming what I knew.

_"Everyone morph and meet at the point. There isn't anytime to get to the Star Chamber and regroup!"_ Hannah commanded.

I ignored the shouts of my English teacher, Mr. Kavo and ran out the door until I found an empty place to morph. "Align the Stars!" I shouted, my Star of David turning into my Leo morpher. "Orange Leo Ranger!"

I teleported off, ready to save the world.


	13. Chapter 13: Hannah

****Alright guys, this chapter's fight song is I'm Alive by Shinedown. Enjoy!

**Hannah**

Remember how I said that the Riders on the field were like the apocalypse? Looking back that was more light rain than hell fire. But this, this was much worse. I was even starting to doubt us, I would never let the team know that though. JT, August and I were in the stairwell, being that the library didn't have any windows. We wanted to see outside after Sam and Laura described it as hell.

"Look at the angle.' JT muttered. "They're all heading downtown!" he reported on the com.

"Everyone morph and meet at the Point. There isn't anytime to get to the Star Chamber and regroup!" Off the com I said to the two boys with me "It's morphin' time." They nodded and flanked behind me. "Align the Stars! Silver Taurus Ranger!"

"Green Capricorn Ranger!"

"Gold Aquarius Ranger!"

I saw the door to the stairwell open, but at the moment I couldn't care less if the whole building saw us morph and teleport. I had bigger things to worry about.

Thankfully, the other Rangers seemed to get to the Point pretty quick. Even Sam was there promptly.

_"Rangers."_ Etoile said to all of us. _"The Universal's troops are in two groups. Draco leads one and Cassiopeia and Orion lead the other."_

"Alpha-beta teams then." I said. "Libra, take your forces to Draco. We'll handle the others."

He nodded his head at me, "Got it. Beta team out!" he ordered and the white, purple, pink, red, green and blue Rangers teleported to the location Etoile sent them.

"Rangers." A deep bass voice called to us mockingly. "It's been a long time since I've seen Power Rangers. I wonder if you're still as breakable as before." He was decked out in furs and looked human, except for the fact that he was about seven feet tall and massive his eyes were dark as coal and narrow, as if he were always tracking something. "Now who will die at my hand first!?" he bellowed at us.

Patience Orion," a deep cool feminine voice above us sighed. "We have plenty of time to kill the pathetic Earthlings." The women the voice belonged to jumped down from a three-story building, landing gracefully on her feet. She had long flowing red hair, like fire around her and a face that could have once been described as beautiful except for the cruel look in her eye and her skin that seemed to cling to her bones, not a drop of fat in sight.

"Cassiopeia, the sooner we get rid of them the sooner we can move on to a new planet."

"You're not going to get the chance to move onto a new planet." I threatened.

"Oh, a Ranger with attitude, how surprising." Cassiopeia yawned.

"Who is your leader? I wish to end his life first!"

"One: she's a girl. Two: you're looking at her. Three: PETA called, they have some serious complaints about cruelty to animals." I sassed.

"You? The leader?" Orion laughed. "A female silver Taurus is leading the team. Whatever happened to the pitiful Ranger standard of the Red Ranger leading? And back in my day Taurus was green!"

"Yeah? Well back in your day you weren't the leader, left the team to become evil with hope you finally could be in charge but still get stepped all over by Draco and still are not the leader." I clearly enraged him and with a growl he charged at me, raising a sword of what looked like bone. "Bull staff!" I summoned, then slammed it down to the ground long ways, sending a crack at him that once reaching his feet made Orion fly backwards. He flipped flawlessly through the air, landing on his feet.

"You command the Earth well Taurus, but you forget: I was the original master of the Earth!"

"Keyword: was!" Leo shouted, jumping over me and already had her sword at hand. "Fire sword!" and as her sword lit up they started dueling. I was impressed with how well she was doing, taking on a hunter that is remembered in the stars with ease.

"Riders!" Cassiopeia shrieked. "Attack!" the hordes of Meteor and Mega Riders suddenly charged at us, literally thousands of them against the five of us.

"Arm yourselves! Pair up! Take out the Rider's hands before you start getting on the offense!" I shouted at my teammates.

"Well Silver, since Orion is busy with the little lion I guess I get to dance with you." Cassiopeia somehow managed to get right behind me and whisper in my ear. I jumped shocked at how close she was to me and she took the opportunity to claw at me with her razor nails. I knew my innards would have been outwards if not for my super suit.

"Where'd you get your nails done, Manicure from Hell?" I quipped, clutching my stomach but standing up.

"I do them myself actually. You can only get the best from the best." She swung her hand at me again, but I threw my staff up just in time and blocked them, even braking one of her nails in fact. "Bitch!" she swore. "Do you know how long it takes to implant titanium into your nail beds?" We began fighting again, but she was clearly better than me, it just wasn't useful fighting with a staff against a set of nails. You would think I had the advantage with the big stick but she had a few millennia more of practice getting around big sticks than I did with fighting against a woman who fought with her nails. "Giving up already? It must be my dazzling good looks. Stronger men have crumbled at the sight of me.'

"Sorry Sis, I don't swing that way." To emphasize the point I swung my staff. She blocked with her arm, which made a hollow metal sound on contact. "Yes, my bones are metal too. It makes a pretty girl like me a lot less damageable." She flew at me again, but I threw up a wall of Earth that comically caught her nails, making her immobile. "Archer! Shoot me an arrow!" I called to him. He saw the nails through the wall and fired, slicing cleanly through all of them.

She screamed, more in anger than pain. I didn't realize that he sent a heat arrow, one that melted her nails, keeping her stuck in the Earth. She tried to pull them out but they wouldn't budge.

"What's wrong? Broke a nail?" she growled in response. "Here, let me help you." I pointed my staff at the wall. "Silver Bull blast!" and it collapsed on top of her. I couldn't hear her screaming anymore, so I turned my attention back to the other.

They were doing well, trying their best to take out the thousands of Riders around us. I was more interested to see how Leo was doing. She was still fighting hard, but it was apparent that she was tiring. I wanted to get to her to help, but the Riders kept coming. For every one that we seemed to take down three more would take their place. They started to swarm Archer, who just couldn't take them out fast enough with only his bow. I jumped over to him, swatting at Riders as I went.

A Mega Rider was coming towards him, trying to occupy his time, but I stomped on the ground, willing two chunks of Earth up and shouted, "Super charge!" making my staff glow and I swung at them like I was playing baseball.

"Duck Archer!" he did just in time and the Mega Rider was blasted to dust.

"Nice shot!" he called to me. "I can handle these now, go help the others!"

I started running back and forth, always trying to get to Leo but being caught up in other fights. Everyone was doing their best to not give out from exhaustion. The suit was sort of like super caffeine for a bit, but even that has its limits.

Archer started getting low on arrows, so he asked us to toss him ones covered in dust from the Riders he already took out. Eventually he just had to get rid of his bow and inflamed his hands, at least holding off the Riders but not destroying them.

Shellshock and Virgo were fighting together really well and I was working with Gold a lot of the time to get rid of Mega Riders. It helped that we already fought one together and used the same tactics.

I wondered how the other team was doing. They could be dead for all I know. _No _I forced myself _don't think like that. _Especially not him. I started fighting even more and even harder, with new vigor.

I heard a scream, and saw a Mega Rider standing over Archer, an arrow in his shoulder. The only thing that could pierce our suits was starlight and those arrows were 110% starlight. "Archer!" I called out, which was one of the greatest mistakes of my life.

At the call of her boyfriend's nickname, Rebecca turned from her fight and without wasting a second Orion hit her across the back of her head with such force it broke her helmet, splitting it off her head as she fell to the ground. His blade began to glow like our weapons and he ran it through Rebecca's chest, pinning her to the ground, unmoving.

"A foe crushed for a for impaled. Fair, is it not?" Orion laughed.

"Anna get here now!" I screamed over the com. Maybe she could heal Rebecca.

"You're not going to get away with this, fuck face!" I said deeply turning back to Orion.

"And what are you going to do about it little girl?"

"End your life!"

"Ha, you cannot end me Taurus! I am invincible!"

"Yeah? Well I bet your gal pal was too. And I already took care of her." I charged at him, raising my staff like a sword, expecting him to meet me, and begin fighting, but he spoke so only I could hear.

"My master requires your presence." One of his pelts came alive and almost bit through the air, creating a portal. Orion withdrew his weapon, spun around me in a manly fashion and pushed me through the portal.

If I had the option to travel by teleportation or portal, I could choose teleportation any day of the week. Portaling is rough and brutal and you feel like your being ripped apart then stapled back together in another place. It seemed like it took longer too. Teleporting was easy and instantaneous while portals are too painful and lasting to be that quick.

I felt like I was flying up to space then finally passing through the walls of a landed spaceship. When I was finally able to recognize my surroundings I could tell I was clearly in a throne room, mainly because the only thing in the room was a giant throne. In it was the being that the universe fears the most.

Honestly he really wasn't that tall, normal height for a human man. I couldn't tell how he was built because he was surrounded by ling billowing cloaks of black.

"Hello Silver Ranger." He greeted coolly. "How do you like my friends?"

Instead of answering him, I took action. I still held on to my Bull Staff and I ran and pull vaulted at him, but just struck a force field throwing me backwards and on the ground, my suit was practically sizzling.

"I thought Rangers were only supposed to fight if they couldn't prevent it and here you are taking the first blow. You are a different sort, Miss Taurus. I wonder if your Rangers would find that admirable. Now I will ask again. What do you think of my friends?"

"Oh they're just a walk in the park." I groaned as I got up, being complacent to see where he was going. "Really they're very lovely people."

He laughed. "Your Rangers must find it admirable that you are trying to laugh in the face of death. It must be why they chose you to be their leader, certainly not for your morals. Or maybe it is the lack thereof."

"No, it was actually for my stunning good looks. And a refreshing change of pace that a Red wasn't leading, they didn't have the suit in my size." I totally dared him to make a Red Ranger comment.

"You are not the first leader nor are you the last to not wear red, Ranger. Or the first female to lead for that matter do not think you are something special."

"Did you bring me up here away from the battle just to try and make me feel bad about not being special? Because high school does a pretty good job of telling me that every day already. You can't break me that way."

"I am certainly not going to fight you if that is what you are thinking."

"Yeah your stupid force field did a good job of showing that, coward."

"I am not a coward, brat. I simply have no need to risk myself in the fight. I have armies to do that fore me. I wanted to talk, show you how your team will die." He smiled maliciously "how part of your team already has."

I tensed up. "Don't you dare talk about Rebecca."

He laughed again. "You think I am only talking about your wake Orange Ranger, Rebecca you say? In fact I was referring to the other half of your team. The one taking on my trusted general. They barely lasted half an hour."

"You're wrong! They can't be dead!" I was numb inside, I couldn't imagine all of them being gone already.

"See for yourself." He waved his hand and there was a pulsing rift in the air that son turned into a viewing portal. It was a visual of Pitt's campus and utterly horrifying. There were Mega Riders all over the place, still with fire on their hands spreading it to any and all surfaces. The portal panned around to show brave heroes in shining colorful suits covered in blood on the ground and a man with the head of a dragon striking victims and laughing evilly.

I could feel the Universal's eyes on me, he wanted me to crack but I went stone cold. He would not kill my friends and get the satisfaction of seeing me break. There would be time for feeling later.

"More of my Meteor Riders are just outside your atmosphere, twice the amount that you have failed to face."

"I've only failed to face them because you forced me out of battle."

"That may be so, but when you get back, you can either pray for a swift death or—" he paused, trying to do the crazy psycho villain thing and play with my mind, which I could never admit to actually working. "I could call them off. Let you collect your dead."

"What and surrender to you? No thanks, I'd rather keep fighting."

"Oh I know that. It's very typical of you Rangers to want to go down fighting. And I wish to take your planet with force. It's more fun, you understand. Besides the more you earthlings panic the more I will enjoy enslaving you. I will be back in a few weeks time or so."

"What's the catch? Why let us off so easy?"

"I want to ruin you. I want to know the girl behind the mask, the one who's already been such a nuisance to me."

"You want to know my identity." I reached to my helmet clasps.

"Ah-ah dear. I will find that soon enough. I want all of your Earth to know the girl to lead them to their doom. Your family, your friends, I think they would all want to know the dangerous position you're putting yourself in. Go back to your planet and tell one of your news people covering the horrific event. They will quickly spread the news and I will immediately withdrawal my troops. Does that sound fair?"

"It sounds like you're an asshole. But I have the choice to either let you get away now and save the rest of my team or die now. You and I know what my choice is."

"You teenagers always have so much spunk in you. I look forwards to crushing that." He had another crazy laughing fit and without even touching me he threw me back into the moving portal.

It was ripping me apart again as I landed back out at the point. It looked pretty much the same. There were a lot of piles of dirt everywhere from Virgo using earth, even my wall was lifted and reused.

"Where the fuck were you?" Cancer practically growled at me.

I ignored him, immediately running away from the battle even though I was itching to kick a lot of ass in a little amount of time. I was throwing Riders away from me using earth as I went. I couldn't distract myself. When I came across the first reporter, some new intern, he didn't know that being stuck close to battle would be the rocket to his career. People would know his name forever. You're welcome bro.

I flipped over him, landing right in front of the camera for dramatic effect. I immediately unclasped my helmet and let my hair fall out, waiting a few moments.

In my deep leader voice I announced to the world, "My name is Hannah Grace and I am the Silver Taurus Ranger, leader of the Power Rangers Zodiac. There, it's done. Now leave." The Universal was true to his word and as soon as I finished all of the Riders and Mega Riders and even Orion and I assume Draco vanished, not teleporting or portal as far as any of us could tell. "I will have one and only one press conference after school in two days. Save questions for then." With my helmet in the crook of my arm I teleported out back to the Star Chamber. The second I touched down I let go of the morph, powering down. To save time I opened a com with everyone, alive or not. "Report back to the Star Chamber, power Rebecca down and take her morpher, but leave her. The other team as well."

"_What the hell do you mean the other team as well?"_ a high energetic voice replied. Anna?

_"Yeah babe, you want us gone already? I didn't know your head was that big."_ Babe? No. I was in total shock. They were alive?

_"Nah, she just doesn't think our half of the team is as good as hers."_ Jerry was kidding.

Their whole team teleported in and Patrick commanded "Power down!" and they all demorphed.

"Hannah, what happened to Rebecca?" Felicia asked me.

"She took Orion on single handedly. She fought very bravely. Until she got distracted and…" I stopped and took a breath. "He ran his sword through her." I stopped again and August put his arm around me attempting to be comforting but only being annoying and I shrugged out of it. "She seemed to have died on impact. There wasn't any pain."

The other four finally came in, Klaus's shoulder still looking gross with the arrow in it. He was clearly in pain; fists and teeth clenched trying not to show it.

"Anna, help him now." JT insisted.

"There is no need for that Aquarius. She is still exhausted from the battle and we would not like her fainting once again." Etoile said, finally appearing. "Sagittarius if you come to the platform we can heal you. Pisces if you could assist, no need to use your power but just for support."

"Of course!" the girl was still chipper even after a battle like that and she bounced over to the platform.

"I want a rundown of what you guys did." I said rather forcefully. "Sorry, I mean can someone tell me what happened over at Pitt? Anything major about Draco really. I have plenty on the Riders."

"I went at Draco as soon as we touched down." Patrick started. "He looked like a normal guys, massive and flawless but sort of like a human. Then his head changed into one of a fucking dragon and started breathing fire at us. I thought I was a goner until Anna threw a water ball right down his throat, choking him. It was pretty brilliant. We started using the air team tactic of rotated fighting him so each of us sort of got a break just fighting the Riders."

"Basically that was what we did until they all just disappeared. How exactly did that happen?" August cut Patrick off.

"That was me. I got them to go away, for now." I said. "But here's what happened back at the point." I recapped our battle, once again getting to Rebecca's death. "I think that Orion's sword had a starlight ability. That's the only way it could get through her armor. We need to look out for that. I charged at Orion and he told me that the Universal wanted to talk so his pelt actually bit a portal in the air and I was transported to his moon base. He was basically patronizing me until he told me the whole second team was dead. And I knew that even when I got back to battle there wouldn't be enough of us with seven dead and one severely injured. So he offered me a trade. He would recall his armies and let us collect ourselves—and our dead—if I revealed my identity to the world."

"That's where you ran. When you got back to Earth." Sam observed. "Sorry for yelling at you."

"Yeah, I ran to the closest reporter I could find, about a mile away. I just pulled off my helmet, said my name, said I would be having a press conference in two days and teleported off."

"That's actually sort of smart…" Patrick remarked.

"The teleporting? I mean I wanted them to be sure that, you know, I was the real deal and nothing gets more real then teleporting. Or did you mean the conference? Because that was sort of a heat of the moment thing, I didn't want to talk then but I knew I would need to so I just scheduled a meeting. I don't know where though… I'll work on it." I rambled.

"Not you." He dismissed. "I mean the Universal. He knows that you know his general has the power and will to kill us, then sends you to meet him and claim that more are dead, putting you in a bad position then an even worse one by making you reveal your identity."

"Wait. Just a thought over here." Laura piped up. "What about us? Do we need to reveal ours too?"

"If I didn't have to give mine away then I would say no way in hell. But now it's different. You can, if you want at the press conference. But you would need to think of the friends and family that could get hurt because of it. You all have a lot to think about before then."

"What about Rebecca?" Klaus asked, waking over without a shirt on, but a large amount of bandages around his shoulder.

"Hopefully by now she has been found and her parents will claim her and take care of all of the arrangements."

"Yeah, but they won't know how brave she was; how she died a hero." Klaus argued.

"I thought about that. If you all were okay with it, I want to tell her parents that she was a Ranger. My identity is already compromised so it makes sense that I would tell them. It would also be up to them to reveal her as one to the public."

"They should know." Laura spoke up. "I think my parents would want to know that I died like that." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I'll do that then. Tomorrow. They should get a chance to grieve privately first." My whole team looked bad, and I couldn't blame them, but it was sort of my job to make them better. "Guys, we did good. No civilians got hurt and we even took out one of their generals. It's not a shitty day."

"Umm Hannah? Who do you think we took out?" JT asked.

"Cassiopeia of course. I crushed her with the wall."

"No you didn't. She was just playing dead until you left. She didn't have the nails anymore but she pulled out a wicked sword." Well that bummed me out. I just tried not to show it too much.

"Still, we are strong. We will continue to battle. Hell it took the original and best Power Rangers three years to beat their villains. This isn't going to happen in a day. There's practice tomorrow after school. I expect everyone to be there." I said, essentially dismissing them. "It's going to be hard, but try to act as normal as possible around your families and at school.

They all started to leave and soon it was only me, August, Klaus and surprisingly Patrick, each of them waiting to talk to me.

Klaus came up first: "It's my fault she's dead."

I slapped him hard across the face, echoing through the chamber.

"Don't you dare say that."

"But it's true. If I wasn't such a shitty fighter I wouldn't have had my own arrow shoved into me."

"No. If anyone is to blame it's me. She wouldn't have noticed if I didn't call your name. But that isn't the point. We can't go blaming ourselves for every death. We're trying to keep them at a minimum. Rebecca knew what she was getting into when she agreed to be a Ranger."

He nodded and I could tell that he was fighting back tears. "Here" He put his hand out. "I have her morpher." He clearly didn't want to give it to me, but it wasn't just her morpher, it was the Leo one. It needed to be passed on. But there may be another way.

"Thank you Klaus." I said almost uncaring, my mind elsewhere. He went to the platform to get his shirt then teleported out.

"A little cold, don't you think?" Patrick said like he fully expected it.

"No I don't." I said sharply. "He can't have that weighing on him."

"But you didn't need to crush his heart. You could have at least let him keep the morpher."

"It's not his to keep. And he needed to know that the blame wasn't on his shoulders!" I yelled. Then I took a much-needed breath and almost whispered, "It's on mine."

"Because you called his name? Babe, that's not your fault." August comforted me, trying once again to put a hand on my shoulder and I once again moved it off.

"No, not that. It's because this is my team. I signed you all up for this. I am responsible for each of your lives and I've already failed one of you. But I'm going to be damn sure that it doesn't happen again."

"What do we do with that?" Patrick gave me a break, pointing at the morpher.

"The computer will tell us who it goes to, out of the eleven that we originally picked. Do you want to see who it chooses?" We walked to the platform and I wasn't really sure what to do so I just touched Rebecca's pendant to the viewing screen. "Computer, choose new Orange Leo Ranger." It brought up all of the people we chose then a loading bar, sorting through the names.

Finally, it settled on one.

I turned to August and we were both smiling, which seemed to be the first time the whole day.

Patrick just said, "I'm fine with that. It's been a long day; I'm going to head home now. See you guys tomorrow."

He teleported home and I turned back to the viewing screen. I found myself staring at the poor soul that I've just doomed.

"I doomed him just as much as you did." August said, reading my mind. He came up and hugged me from behind and this time I didn't try to get out of it, in fact I almost forced myself not to. "You can stop being so tense." He murmured. "It's just us here now."

"I don't think I can." I admitted. "I'm not going to be able to feel anything for a while. I can't have emotions and be the leader of this team."

"So you aren't going to allow yourself to feel anything?" He said low and deep, biting my ear after.

"Well… maybe not all feelings, just the sad grieving ones."

"Good." He turned me around in his arms, facing him and looking into his chocolate eyes, almost looking hungry. "I would hate to think of you not feeling anything."

"Mr. Russell, if I didn't know any better I would say you were trying to seduce me."

He bent down and pulled me into a deep kiss. "Who says I'm not?" he smiled. I panicked for a second; there was no way I was ready for that. "I'm not. I'm joking. You just need to relax. You don't believe your own speech about how we did well. Well we did. You're just mad that you were taken our of battle."

"Yeah, I am. I don't know, I think things could have been different. It felt even worse when I finally did come back, knowing that I had to run away to save everyone. But I didn't have a choice."

"Huh." He made a sound thinking and smiling.

"What?"

"Oh nothing, I just realized that everyone's going to know that I'm dating a Power Ranger. You don't realize how much street cred that will give me."

"So you're not coming out too?"

"I don't want to hurt my mom. Not that I'll hurt her, it's just better this way. I don't know why anyone would want to reveal it."

"I don't know, it might be nice to have it all out. I haven't been in the real world since I came out so the experience will be new to me."

He thought for a second. "Do you want to? Go out that is. We haven't been on a date yet you know."

"We've only been together for a day."

"And still no date! I'm failing as a boyfriend but more importantly a gentleman. At least let me buy you some frozen yogurt."

"Are you fine with getting some scrutiny for being with me and a hell of a lot of odd looks?"

He kissed me and smiled, "I think I'll live."

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Hey guys! GazingAtTheStars here! Just want to say thanks for reading and if you guys would review you know that means the world to us writers here! May the Power protect you all!


	14. Chapter 14: Hannah

Hey guys! Just to clear up some obvious confusion, I ended up changing a lot of the names because honestly none of them were working for me, so now here are the new names. Elleson- Adrian Butler, Abby- Hannah Grace, Natalie- Felicia Scott, Melissa- Rebecca Rosen, Julia- Laura Burrows, Daniel- Patrick Glean, Jeremy- Jerry Pope, Torben- Klaus Beckendorf, Pascal- August Russell, AJ- JT Monett, and Annie- Anna MacDougall. Thanks for reading guys!

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Of course everything changed.

It couldn't not change.

It started when I got into the car with Mr. Nealson to get to school. He's been driving me for as long as I can remember. That's what you get when you live next door to the high school principal. He was just staring at me when I got in the car. I tried to ignore it as I buckled my seatbelt.

"I take it you say the news yesterday?" I couldn't ignore it forever.

"Oh yeah, the five o'clock, then 10:30 and eleven. On every station. Even the national new, Brian Williams was just raving about your bravery."

"Oh. Cool." He started driving.

"Out of all of the people in my school I'm not surprised that you're a Power Ranger."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you care about everyone around you and I can see you standing up against scary aliens way bigger than you and just spitting at them." We laughed and then came to a comfortable almost normal silence. "Can you tell me who the others are?"

"Mr. Nealson!" I was angered. "These kids need the utmost privacy. Their lives could be ruined, their families killed. Why do you think I was the one to reveal myself? I don't have a family to care about me."

My parents aren't ever home to drive me to school, or make me meals, or talk about my day. I honestly have no idea where they are or what they're doing. Sure, they show up every few months to say hello and the back account was always well stocked but I didn't even feel a connection to them. My siblings did take care of me for some time, but they're both in there twenties and move on and out. I can't blame them. I would have done the same.

"You know you're parents would be here if they could." He tried.

"Where are they then? Why not come home, now especially when they hear that Hannah Grace is a worldwide name."

"It's complicated, you know that. They're here as much as possible."

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered.

"We couldn't account for all of the kids at the school yesterday. Like you were marked in the library at the time of the attack."

"And you're saying that you can't prove who the rest of them are and won't question it. You'll let it go."

"No Hannah, I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"I want to look out for you. All of you. Now that we have Ranger I have a feeling that the twelve of you will increase in class cuts. If you tell me who your team was then we could excuse you. Help you and pay attention to injuries and things like that."

"Eleven." I muttered

"What?"

"Shit." I muttered again. "Look, I haven't talked to her parents yet so this is not public knowledge. The girl that died yesterday in the attack, Rebecca Rosen, was a Ranger and she died. Now we don't have that new Ranger color yet. So for now it's eleven."

"I'm sorry Hannah, I didn't realize. How are you feeling?"

"Not good. But I'm doing the best I can right now. Today is going to be interesting for sure."

"Can I, Principal Nealson do anything for you?"

"No thanks sir, everyone pointing at me and whispering is going to be bad enough, I don't want to be holding your hand the whole way through today as well."

As soon as I got to school all eyes were on me. I could have sworn most kids didn't watch the news. The only way it could have traveled so fast was word of mouth. Or the Internet. Yeah now that I think about it that was most likely it. I already had a few million friend-requests on Facebook, most of them people and from places that I've never heard of.

I wore the only actual silver that I owned, a sort of itchy sweater from Express with a green cami underneath for some color. I debated not wearing my color, trying to be as normal as possible but then I realized how I was wearing gray or silver pretty much every day for the past two months. That is normal now.

And you should give the people what they want right? Now they want the silver Ranger. I got way more second glances from students and teachers alike. I was the girl who saved their world and I guess I deserved their attention. Yay?

The date yesterday was actually really nice. As I promised all eyes were on us and not just because they were thinking 'what the hell is a guy as hot as he is doing with her?' it was mostly because not that I wasn't popular but because most people heard of the Silver Ranger from when she saved the school from the fiery aliens the first time and now everyone knew it was me. There were some people who thanked me, which was nice and surprising. Those were mostly adults. The kids we saw from school sort of were more quiet, gawking at us for either being August Russell and Hannah Grace on a date or that chick who's the super hero.

I learned that we weren't an overly PDA sort of couple, which was nice and not gross like some couples could be. We talked about non-Ranger things, books, music, college plans, thoughts. I did my best to shy away from family matters and he never pushed it there. There were some people who ignored us, oblivious and not aware, most likely not having seen the news yet. I relished in it while we could.

I didn't dare go to the hang out spot before school. People would be watching me more closely than ever and I couldn't throw my teammates under the bus on day one, so I went to the library instead. Find some quiet in a good book.

Down there I saw my old English teacher from tenth grade, Mr. Sacco.

"Morning Mr. Sacco." I said to him, trying to act normal.

"Hello Hannah." He said coolly and went back to his work.

That was odd.

He was the nerdy teacher. He'd been following the Rangers since he was a kid and they first appeared in California. He showed us his collection of pictures of them. He was very proud.

"You're not going to ask anything? Say something?" I was shocked.

"It's not my place to ask. But if you ever want to talk about it, just know that I'm here to listen. I know a thing or two about Power Rangers."

"Thank you Mr. Sacco." He didn't exactly smile at me because he's Sacco and he doesn't smile much, but it wasn't his awkward death stare like when you failed one of his quizzes so I took it.

Thinking of him reminded me of Rebeccaa. She was in that class last year. We had a lot of fun on projects together. Now we'll never get to do another one. No. I wouldn't let myself cry here. I already did that last night when Pascal dropped me off.

"Hannah." I was pulled out of my thought by someone I wouldn't have expected.

"Hey William. What's up?"

"You're a Power Ranger."

"Yeah, I guess that is what's up around the school isn't it. How did you hear? The news? Social networking? I'm considering taking a poll on it."

"No, I saw you morph."

"You what? I don't know how many people are going to answer that option."

"Yesterday. When you, August and JT ran out of the library. I followed you and saw you become Power Rangers." When he said August and JT's names I looked around to make sure no one heard him.

"Their names aren't exactly publicly Ranger like mine is. If you wouldn't ever mention it again that would be great."

"I wasn't going to tell anyone if that's what you mean. I just wanted to know if there was anything I could do."

"Actually there is. Just promise that you'll act all surprised during study hall."

"Sure. What is it?"

"One of ours died in the fight yesterday. To keep the balance we need a new Ranger and the computer picked you to be that Ranger."

He was surprised. "Me?"

"Well it's not like it was you out of all of the people in the world. It was out of the people we chose to serve if we fell.'

"So I'm a Power Ranger now?"

"You can think it over. Join or not it's up to you. But if you say yes then we take you to the Power Rangers headquarters and we begin training you and you become a Ranger."

"A Power Ranger. Me?" he said in awe. "Sorry I'm just still trying to get my mind around this."

"It's a lot to take in. You're handling it much better than some of the others."

The bell rang for homeroom and kids started to scurry out of the library.

"Remember, act all surprised when August tells you. I promised him he could."

"Good for you guys, by the way. You being a couple and all now. No offense but I didn't see it coming. At all."

"Don't worry, I honestly think that I'm the only one that actually did."

He looked sort of confused but nodded and we went our separate ways out of the library. I walked up the two flights of stairs to my homeroom. It was dead silent as soon as I crossed the doorway.

No one said anything until our teacher forced us to say the pledge, when finally Jonny Greg, the kid I picked to be an alternate Ranger asked, "Are you really the Power Ranger?"

"Yep."

"Even at the spirit assembly?" Other kids started asking me questions.

"Yep."

"And you lead all the other Rangers?"

"Yep."

"Are they human?"

"Can't say."

"Are you human?"

"Currently."

"Do the others go here too?"

"Still can't say."

"Can you morph for us?"

"Nope." I pulled out a book, trying to act as disinterested as possible while they asked me what zords are like and how many other Rangers I knew. Finally our homeroom teacher told them, "Let her be guys." I gave him a relieved smile and they left me alone for now.

That was pretty much how it went for the rest of the day. Kids would ask the same questions and I wouldn't answer much. Teachers would tell everyone to shut up and get back to work, but still look at me just to see if I really was the girl that was saving their world. Some asked August if he was a Ranger too when he walked me to math after APUSH. We just ignored those ones.

He and I had the same lunch period, but I never sat with him before because I always went to choir instead of the cafeteria to eat. I didn't think I could bare those kids asking me questions too so I told him to meet me outside of my math room after class so we could eat together.

"You know William sits at my table." August casually brought up when we got in line for our food.

"Oh does he now?"

"Should we tell him?"

"I mean it's not like JT knows that he's the new Ranger yet. We can just tell him during study hall."

"Or we can just tell him if we see him here in the cafeteria."

"Hey guys!" Laura said coming over to us. "Hannah, what are you doing here?"

"Skipping choir. I didn't feel like going there today."

"I'm telling you." JT came up too. "He is a bad influence on her." August gave me a 'told you he'd be here' look and then glared at JT for saying he was a bad influence.

"Shut up gay J" August taunted and they both chuckled. Men.

"So what's up with you guys?" Laura asked.

"We're going to tell William that he's one of us." August reveled.

"Really? He's who the computer picked? Good for him." JT said.

Once we all got our lunches and talked more about telling William we sat at August's normal table, all four of us.

"Do you guys normally sit together?" I asked.

"Not really." Laura said. "But why not? I like you guys a hell of a lot more than my boyfriend's friends that I usually sit with. And he's not even in this period!"

"Klaus does though, he'll get here eventually." August said.

"Good. I want to give him something." I had found a solution to our problem last night and I wanted to make up for being a bitch to him.

"Hey William." August said over my shoulder and the man in question came around the table to sit next to him. I gave him a wink before August told him about being a Ranger again. I promised him that because William was his choice he could tell him that he was a Ranger.

Klaus came to the table part way through, his eyes red and swollen. Honestly I'm proud of the kid for just coming to school. I don't think I could be able to if it was August who died yesterday. He sat next to me on the end so it was easier for me to talk to him.

"Hey Klaus," I started softly, getting his attention. The others didn't notice, they were too consumed with answering William's questions. "I'm sorry for how cold I was to you yesterday. I knew you were hurting but I was still in leader mode where feelings aren't real things. Anyways, I made this." I pulled out an orange Star of David on a gold chain, looking exactly how Rebecca wore hers. "It's not the real thing, but I used the same material that the morphers are made of, so it can change to anything orange, just like her old one. It's not a lot, but it was the least I could do for you." I placed the necklace in his hands. He was once again getting emotional.

"Thank you Hannah. I don't think you know how much this means to me."

"I do. And I want you to know—"

"Hannah." Mr. Nealson's voice called to the whole table and me went silent. I couldn't really tell what his emotion was. He looked sort of angry, but also almost happy. Did he figure out the rest of the Rangers? "I need to talk to you."

I guess there's only one way to find out.

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Now that you all know who the next orange ranger will be it's also fair to say that I changed Liam's name to William as well. Thanks for reading guys! Please review, it always puts a smile on my face!


	15. Chapter 15: Klaus

Hey guys! Super sorry about the long wait, but school man, it's a time killer. Hopefully when June rolls around I'll really be able to write a lot.

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Everything hurt.

My shoulder was still on fire even though Etoile helped some. My brain just shut down from all the pain. I didn't want to deal with today, I physically couldn't.

I didn't want to believe she was gone. Just as fast as my lioness came into my life she left with a blaze. When she was here I was happy. I fought better yesterday than I've ever fought in my life. Even when my arrows were gone, my fire blazed brighter and my martial arts weren't total shit, which is saying a lot. Then that stupid Mega Rider got one of my arrows. Who would have thought those silent pieces of space shit had the ability to know what irony was?

Assholes.

If I had just kept a better eye on my arrows, maybe had a better stratagie then fire at anything that moves, I wouldn't have ever gotten hurt and Rebecca would still be here with me. I don't care what Hannah wants me to believe. It is my fault.

I've spent most of my time today in the bathroom, crying. No one seemed to notice, which I appreciated. That's one of the good things about being the lone sophomore on the team. No classes with the other Rangers and their pitying looks. Not until lunch at least when I sat with August.

I came a few minutes late, making sure I didn't look like I had just been crying. (I was.) The first thing I noticed was our table was fuller than usual. Sure occasionally some of August and William's crew friends were there but today Hannah, Laura and JT were all sitting there instead.

It dawned on me. William was going to be the new Ranger. Duh. They were all ganging up on him to get him to say yes. It didn't take a genius to figure it out.

I didn't really have the time to catch what exactly they were saying because Hannah said "Hey Klaus," in a secretive sort of way. Then she pulled out the necklace. She went on talking but I didn't pay attention with the little Star of David in my hand.

I started to feel warm again. She was interrupted by a cough and we all looked up and saw the principal. Apparently he and Hannah were neighbors but I didn't know him that well so my gut instinct was to stay quiet. He probably wanted to talk to her about being a Ranger or something. She didn't do anything to give the rest of us away, which was good because I think I decided that I didn't want anyone to know my secret.

"How are you Klaus?" Laura asked me in her sort of quiet voice.

"I'll be fine. I'm not good now, but I will be."

"That's a good attitude. If you ever need someone to talk to just let me know."

"I will." I wouldn't. She's nice enough but that's a pretty personal thing and even though we're Rangers together I don't know her that well still. I also don't care for people to see that many emotions from me.

Hannah wasn't gone for too long when she came back to the table smiling. "Good news, Mr. Nealson and I talked and he offered to have the school host the press conference of mine."

"So he wants good publicity for the school?" August asked.

"Yeah pretty much, but it accomplishes what I wanted and the school will organize it, basically now all I need to do is show up and answer annoying questions that have been repeated three times already."

"So what do we do now? As a team?" I asked, letting the bitterness seep out when I glanced over at William. How dare he try to wear my lioness's outfit. "Do we just move on and get over it?"

"Not at all. In fact I have some things already in motion to better ourselves in battle." Hannah said quietly, all a part of not revealing our identities. "But you guys can see that after school at the Star Chamber—Wait, after I talk to Rebecca's parents too. You can report to the Star Chamber two hours later."

"You're talking to them?" I perked up.

"Yeah, like we decided yesterday—"

"Can I come with you? I know I never officially met them and they didn't have the chance to know about us, they should though."

"You mean you want to tell them that you fucked their dead daughter?" August asked, insensitivity was normal to him.

"Aug." Hannah scolded. "Shut it. That's not cool."

"I'm not a dog." He muttered.

"But you're acting like one." She turned back to me. "If you want to and if you're even okay with possibly telling them your identity then I'm fine with you coming alone."

"I will come then. I think it'll be good for me, closure you know?"

"Yeah I do. Although I don't think anyone else should come with us. Too many people could freak them out and I don't thin you all want to tell Rebecca's parents about what you do outside of school."

"Is that a big issue right now? You guys coming out as Rangers?" William asked.

"Because Hannah did it." JT elaborated. "Otherwise Ranger identities are secret, you know? That's how it was for all of the other teams, but their villains never forced them come out on live television. So now we all have the option of doing the same."

"Are you going to?"

"Unless Rebecca's parents ask, I'm not." I say.

"I'm not."

"Nope."

"Me either."

"William I think it's best we don't even mention you. I think you show up conveniently when we need you next. The world doesn't have to know about a new Orange Ranger already." Hannah proclaimed.

"I'm fine with that. I don't think I would want to anyways."

The fake cheerful bell rang and as I was walking away I could hear Hannah call "Just meet me in the auditorium lobby after school!"

I was sort of happy, really relieved to not have to be around them anymore, talking so casually about what to do without Rebecca. I was also kind of disappointed too. I didn't need to pretend that I didn't feel around them.

The day was still miserable but at least I could look forward to a sense in closure in talking to Rebecca's parents. I started just ditching classes and going to the library. Who needs to learn when I can sleep in the back corner? The only thing I was worried about was the others who come down here seventh period finding me. They didn't though and I got to be alone totally. Finally hell blissfully came to an end and I was able to own up to my actions, the Ranger ones and the teenage boy ones.

"So what are we doing?" I asked Hannah as I approached. "Walking? Teleporting?" I muttered the second part.

"Walking. It's far but I don't want anyone thinking things about you."

"Things?" I didn't know what she was talking about, that we were dating?

"Ranger things!" she hissed.

"Oh yeah, of course." Duh. We walked the way in silence but it wasn't awkward. I think she knew that I just wanted to think. She really is a great leader. She knows us without having to ask anything.

Finally she stopped on the sidewalk. "This is her house."

"I remember."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you had been here before."

"I don't think I'll ever forget."

Hannah and I continued to walk the rest of the way to her porch and she rang the doorbell. I accepted the fact that she was going to be doing most of the talking. Hannah is way more able to string words together than I am. When I'm nervous I can barely remember how to speak English let alone make it sound nice.

Mrs. Rosen finally came to the door, her eyes red and puffy, honestly looking dead inside. "Hannah," she said without any feeling at all, not even a little bit surprised.

"Hi, Mrs. Rosen. This is my friend Klaus."

"Why are you here? This isn't exactly a good time." she asked us before Hannah could even get to the point.

"I know. But this is important. It's about Rebecca."

She let out a sob.

"I know this must be extremely hard for you Mrs. Rosen, but I want you to know that your daughter did not die in vain."

She looked up, clearly confused.

"Have you had the chance to watch the news? Either yesterday evening or today?"

"Um, no. We've been a little preoccupied. All I know it that there was an alien attack and the new Power Rangers fought them. And then my baby girl died in the crossfire."

"Nein sie tat es nicht." I muttered to myself. Thankfully neither of them spoke German.

"First off, let me tell you something about me." Hannah started. "I am one of the Power Rangers that fought. The leader of them in fact." To emphasize her point Hannah touched her necklace and it transformed to its normal Taurus Morpher self. "I am the Silver Taurus Ranger."

"So you know what happened to my little girl?"

"I do. But she wasn't just caught in the crossfire, as you were to believe, she was the one doing a lot of the damage. Mrs. Rosen, your daughter was the Orange Leo Power Ranger and she died so the earth would be safe."

Rebecca's mom lost it for a few minutes at the door, so much that Rebecca's father came to see what was the matter and Hannah told him as well. All he could say was "I knew she wouldn't be skipping school." Then actually turned to me and said, "I assume you're one as well? That's the reason you came with Hannah?"

"Ja sir, I mean, yes sir." I replied, slipping German and my accent thicker than usual.

"Klaus was on two of Rebecca's three teams and they bonded over the month we were together."

"Sir I was in love with your daughter. And I think that she was in love with me."

Her mom stopped crying and looked up at me with wonder. "She mentioned a boy, many times. But she never said anything about dating or being in love."

"It was not official until last week. The thought of death can make people a lot more bold about their love."

"Mr. and Mrs. Rosen, there is something else I wanted to talk to you about." Hannah interrupted before I could declare my love for their daughter again. "I was forced to reveal my identity and I am now publically known as a Power Ranger. I am having a press conference tomorrow to answer questions and tie up loose ends. People will be asking about the fallen Ranger. There were too many witnesses for them to not notice."

"You can tell them. The world should know what our baby did."

Hannah nodded her head. "I think you're making the right choice. I also want you to know that I won't be announcing that she has a successor. Until the next battle she will be the only orange Ranger. Also have peace knowing she is the first Orange Ranger ever. She will always be remembered."

"Thank you Hannah, for telling us. And you too Klaus, for revealing your identity to us for the sake of our daughter." Mrs. Rosen said, then her husband finished "Klaus, would you like to come inside? I think my wife and I would like to know our daughter's boyfriend better."

"Yes, of course sir. I would be honored." Relief washed through me, like I was close to being accepted by them. I followed them inside, praying for the closure that I thought I desperately needed.

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Thanks for reading guys! As always please drop a little review saying what you think so far about the story and what not! I love to get feedback (Both good and bad)


	16. Chapter 16: Laura

"Hello, my name is Hannah Grace and as you must know by now I came out two days ago as the Silver Taurus Power Ranger. I am here to answer questions but first, I have a statement I would like to make. Alien threats do not come to Earth because the Power Rangers are here, the Power Rangers come to Earth because the aliens have decided to attack it. Do not put the blame of the attacks on the Rangers; you would be helpless without us. With that being said, let me state this: I am one hundred percent human. I was born and raised here on Earth, in Mt. Lebanon. I am not an alien. But the Ranger powers are. I will not reveal any of my teammates identities, or if they are human or not. It was their choice to reveal themselves as I did and they elected not to. So do not ask for names."

"What about the orange one?"

"I have talked to her parents and they have allowed me to tell you that their daughter, Rebecca Rosen, was in fact the Orange Leo Ranger and she died to protect the Earth."

The crowd went nuts. Over the noise someone else shouted, "So each time one of them dies you will release their names?"

"No. I will not be releasing any more names because no one else on my team will die. I will be damn sure of that."

"What is the treat you're facing?" another one asked, figuring that Hannah's statement was over. For the most part it was, she knew it would be right about there that people would start asking questions.

"His name is the Universal. To date he has control of almost all of the universe, minus the delta sector, which we're in. Obviously, that's why he's called the Universal, because he rules almost all of the known universe."

"How do you compare him to Rita Repulsa or Lord Zedd?"

"He is worse than both of them combined. Hence why we need twice the size of a normal Ranger team."

"Why are you the Power Rangers Zodiac?"

"These powers are very old, the original zodiacs were the first team to defeat the Universal. So our mentor thought it would be fitting that the power to defeat him once and for all would be the same ones that he originally feared."

"And what if you don't stop him?"

"Well that's not going to happen. The Universal will be stopped. I will not let the people of Earth be enslaved. Further more, let me say that we are not the police. We will have nothing to do with human criminal actions. As Rangers, our only priorities are the aliens we are equip to combat. The police are more than capable of handling human wrong doers. But they are not capable to help us fight the Universal and his Meteor Riders."

"What is a Meteor Rider?"

"They are the Universal's henchmen. The fireballs raining down from the sky. He has millions of them at his command. He also has his generals, Orion, Cassiopeia and Draco. Each is extremely dangerous and though Cassiopeia and Orion as well as Draco in his normal form look human, they are not. You can't take them out with simple bullets. It will take much more than you have."

"And you have it?"

"Yes, we do."

"So why not just give them to the police so we don't have to place the fate of the world in the hands of a teenage girl?"

"Well I didn't hear anyone complaining when we saved you from being annihilated." The whole auditorium seemed to go silent.

"So you won't let the authorities handle the threat."

"Oh I am. But the police are not the authorities on aliens, my team is. And our powers are bound to us. Only if we release them can anyone else accept the power."

"So release them."

"The releasing of our powers only happens in death." Once again, the room went silent.

"What do your powers entail?" the reporter who Hannah originally revealed herself to asked. She flashed a smile at him.

"As well as having the Ranger suit, each of us have our own individualized weapons we well as the ability to control one of the elements based on their Zodiac. Ares, and Sagittarius use fire, myself, Virgo and Capricorn use earth, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius use air and Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces use water." She didn't mention the fact that we were starting to develop extra powers as well.

"Can you give us a demonstration?"

Hannah laughed, "Sorry but there currently isn't any earth around here."

"Can you morph for us?"

"Yeah no, we only morph if we're forced to act. We do not accelerate fights and until me, we weren't supposed to reveal our identities." She got a laugh out of the group; they recognized her sort of playful tone. It was an awkward laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.

"Why did you do it? What did the Universal do to make you tell us that you're a Power Ranger?"

"First, he made me believe that half of my team was dead. I had just watched my first Ranger die and honestly I was beginning to think that it was a realistic possibility that they might have too. So he told me that he would withdraw his troops and let my four remaining Rangers collect our dead essentially if I told the world."

"Why?"

"To make me a public menace? A person for you guys to put the blame on? Who know? Really I think he just wanted to fu—mess with my head." I smiled at her almost mess up. If it was me up there I know that I would have actually slipped up a lot. "I know you think that you would be in better hands if it was the police or an adult that was in the Silver Ranger suit leading the Power Rangers. But I have been training for this. My whole life I've seen the Power Rangers saving the world, we all have. And they were no older than me. Some of them were extremely younger. One was barely in middle school when he was in the suit. But my team will do well. We will defeat the Universal. He underestimates us, and I can tell from the looks on a lot of your faces, you underestimate us and that gives us the upper hand. As time goes on we do strive to earn your trust and hopefully we'll earn it because we are really just trying to save the world." She paused. "Are there any other questions?" No one answered. Only Hannah could silence a room full of journalists.

"This will be possibly the only conference that I will do. I don't want Hannah Grace, teenager to be known to you, I only want that to be the Silver Taurus Ranger. Therefore having a lot of quality time with little old Hannah defers from my goal. I am the one the Universal will fear the most. I am the one that will bring him down. And as long as I exist, there is hope for the world. Thank you and good night."

Hannah walked off the stage towards me and August and I could see her exhale deeply. I gave her a big smile and hugged her. "You did great!" August of course did the same thing plus a kiss and we started walking through the crowd of journalists.

Obviously, not all of the Rangers could have been back there to support Hannah and August and I made the most sense because I was one of her best friends before we were Rangers and August obviously was her boyfriend. Not to mention the less publically known fact that we made up the Earth team of the Rangers. We bonded the best of the four elements.

"Miss Grace!" someone called over the crowd, but Hannah didn't even turn around and we just keep walking out behind her.

"It was a really good job Hannah. You handled their questions without getting too worked up, you sounded passionate about being a Ranger."

"And intelligent" I added "as always."

We all stopped, hearing footsteps running behind us. I tensed up and August clenched his fists. We were ready to make a move, but Hannah just stayed still.

"Miss Grace!" the same voice called again. We both relaxed and Hannah turned around willing to talk to him now.

"Boy, you are persistent."

He smiled. "The studio wouldn't let me come back without talking to you personally."

"Then let's get talking. I would hate for someone to lose their job over me. I'm Hannah, and these are my friends, Laura and August."

"And I'm Dan Reynolds, you stole my camera to announce who you were the other day."

"Sorry about that."

"Don't be. Because of that the station actually wants me to be the official Power Rangers News Correspondent. I'm thinking of making a new business card. But because of you I got a promotion after one day on the job."

"It was your first day?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I practically begged the station to let me go out there, they weren't even paying me either. I was just an intern, until you changed that. Your friend calling herself a Ranger on my camera was the best thing that could have possibly happened to me."

"This is great and all, and I'm super happy for you, but why do you need to talk to me?"

"See, as a part of my contract the station thinks that I should have direct contact with you—"

"Sorry. Not happening. I don't do that. Weren't you listening?"

"Yes I was, but I don't want to talk to Hannah Grace– no offense."

"None taken."

"I just want to talk to the Silver Ranger, not even on camera, just to make sure I'm getting the correct information. I don't care about your personal life."

"So you won't mention that you talked to me in your reportings?"

"Not at all. You will only be a direct source of information."

"And what do I get out of it?"

"Honestly? Nothing. I mean we can issue statements from you if you want—"

"No. I can do that just fine on my own. Or did you not just see the press conference I just gave a few minutes ago in there?"

"That's fair. Money?"

"That's a start. And I want you to not look into the identities of the other Rangers. That means no snooping around my life or my friends or my school because you think they might be here. People will eventually get hurt pretending to be my team."

"What do you mean?"

"We've seen it before, someone want to play the hero, or have a taste of fame. So they say they're a Power Ranger and try to take on that mantle. I don't want to be responsible for those lives too so do me a favor and don't listen to anyone saying they're a Power Ranger unless it comes through me."

"What about these two? Are they Rangers?" he asked about me and August, not to us.

"Are you kidding? Do you think I could be bossed around by my girlfriend all day?" August laughed.

"What did I say about doing that Reynolds?" Hannah said with a fake serious tone and a laugh as well.

"Hey, you said no fake Ranger claims, nothing about a one on one with your boyfriend." He thought for a second. "I didn't mean it like that."

August gave him an "I know that feeling" look. We could always turn to him for misinterpreted sexual innuendos or weed jokes.

"No personal life. I thought you weren't interested in that anyways."

"Oh I am. The whole world is. But I knew you wouldn't agree to it. Give me some credit, I need to be somewhat intelligent to be a journalist."

"You sure about that?" I asked and even he laughed.

"Is that all Reynolds?"

"Yes. But here's my card, for now. I'll send you a new one once my new title is on it. Call if you need anything. Can I have your information so I can get in touch after a battle?"

"Watch it Reynolds." August muttered, but only I could hear it. After Hannah wrote down her email and cell number we continued walking away from Dan Reynolds, Power Ranger Correspondent.

"So where are we going?"" I asked Hannah.

"I gave everyone the day off of training, so we don't need to go to the Star Chamber."

"Did you tell William?" August asked. "He doesn't even have a morpher yet."

"I know, but I don't think he even knows how to get to the Star Chamber. Someone would need to take him. He can be introduced to the power tomorrow. I think we can give him one more day of normalcy."

"You always sound so bitter about have to recruit us. Like it's not an honor to be a Power Ranger, or our choice. It's not like you forced this on us." I said.

"But I was the first. I'm the leader. It's basically my job to tell you to go out there and do your best not to die, but die anyways because the world needs you to die to keep it safe. I took away honesty from your lives, I probably took away the college of your choice. You have to make up excuses to get away from your families to save the world and you won't have time to study for a test when an army of Riders are raining down on us. Not even mentioning dating."

"I don't know, I think dating worked out alright for me." August said.

"Yeah, we're that couple, which provides problems in itself. Everyone else though will have to run out on their dates if Ranger duty calls. Then make up lame excuses later and hope they can reschedule for another date that will be interrupted. I've basically ruined being a teenager for you guys."

"You don't get to be a teenager any more than we do Hannah." I said. "It's not like you got the opportunity that we didn't. And really if it's anyone's fault it's the stars for having this power in the first place, not you."

"No don't say that!" she snapped. "Sorry. That was out of line. You don't know them yet. To me the stars are like god. It's scary you know? When I first became a Ranger something bonded me to them I think." She looked up, clearly thinking. "Do you guys want to know how I got my powers?"

Of course we did. It was our biggest mystery, after why Daniel hates her so much that is.

"August, you call William and tell him to meet us at the overnight tree, I'll open a com with the others."

She had something bigger than us, different than us. I know there was more to her than just being a Ranger. Even for the two months that I didn't know her secret there was something… different about her. Like she had a new sense of duty. After I got my power too I thought that maybe that was all it was, but now. I think she has much more power than any of us do. And I don't even think that she knows it.


	17. Chapter 17: Jerry

Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while, but good news is I am done with school so I can hopefully start posting faster! Thanks for reading!

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We sat around her, like a fan of apostils to Jesus. No one really complained that we had to sit on the ground because the picnic table was moved away from Hannah's tree. Of course the apostil thing would make more sense if there were twelve of us, if only Rebecca were here then it would be perfect for a stupid Stienbeckian metaphor. I'm not going to get over her death easily. Hell she just played my wife in a stupid school play. We were close friends. But honestly I didn't think that she was a good fit for a Ranger. Hell I don't think I'm a good fit for a Ranger. Ever since I was grabbed by Felicia in the hall that day I haven't felt right. Looking around at everyone else, I felt like I would be the next to die. A little morbid, right? That's what happens when you have to face the possibility of death everyday. Sure I'm the "smart" one on the team. But math and physics aren't going to help much while on the battlefield. Hannah had all the alien battle smarts. I think she won in that category obviously.

I found her staring at me oddly, like she was telling me that I was smart or some shit like that and I just needed to learn like she did. Teach away Hannah, teach away.

"So the lesson today isn't physical, it's mental. In fact, it's a history lesson, our Ranger history. But before I start with the beginning of the Earth Rangers, I want to tell you my story, how I got my power and other weird things that don't seem right about me. If you guys could ask questions after I would appreciate it. Hopefully I'll answer all of them.

"My encounters with aliens began when I was very young. Of course at the time I didn't know that they were aliens. I just thought that they were nightmares. They weren't like a normal kid's alien nightmares, no aliens was attacking an earth city. Instead there were other worlds being attacked aliens were dying and I felt awful, but there weren't any Power Rangers to save them. I would go to second grade thinking about the blood of innocent lives.

"My parents weren't around much, and since they didn't have time to talk to me to see how truly troubled I was, they sent me to a shrink. There I learned to not talk about my nightmares. I didn't want anyone to just say I had an overactive imagination or worse, that I was crazy. In elementary school, no one would bother talking to me. Middle school changed that because I got really good at faking normalcy. I wasn't the weird girl who talked about aliens, I never even mentioned the Power Rangers. I tried to like horses and shit that other girls liked. But at night I was still suffering. Each nightmare was different than the last, each one a new world with fire raining upon it. Crushed in a matter of hours. Sound familiar?"

No one did anything. Of course she had nightmares of the Universal attacking other planets when she was a kid.

"Then it got worse. Those that appeared in my dreams were suddenly in school, or walking home with me. Some were hard to look at, so mutilated from the destruction even with their alien features looked awful. Others though, looked completely normal, in ways they were even worse. None of them said anything to me, just pleading with their eyes. Like they expected a thirteen year old to save them.

"Up until eighth grade I hadn't told anyone. Then I got one of my closest friends. He was sweet and nice and funny and I thought I could trust him with anything." All eyes went to Pat, except for Hannah's. Their roles seemed to have shifted because he was trying to look directly in her eyes, asking if she would dare tell their story. "So I did trust him and I told him everything. I told him about the nightmares, about the ghosts I guess that were always with me, I even pointed some out. While I was at it I even told him that I had feelings for him. Why not get all of the secrets out at once? I won't go into details but basically someone was listening in and the rumor started all over again that Hannah was a freak and the friend very publically distanced himself from me. I just learned that no one could know about my secret and I was honestly just fortunate that he didn't tell anyone and go into detail about what I told him.

"So I talked to no one after and I went three more years with nightmares and alien ghosts following me. They were the only ones that stuck with me then, sometimes I even thought they were friends when I was feeling particularly lonely. Then three months ago my dreams changed. At first I was just floating through the sky and the stars. It was the first time since I was in second grade that I didn't feel like I was in total chaos. One night I saw Etoile being created, she was an actual woman, not just the stars making a girl. She was alone on her planet and offered herself to help that Ranger cause. She was filled with the voices of the stars and she began forming the Star Chamber, which is really a single pocket of the universe that could only be penetrated by perfect starlight. Then she finally acknowledged me. 'We regret your suffering, little bull,' she told me 'but you must understand that you had to see what he was doing to the universe.' She told me everything about the Universal. Then she declared I was to be a Power Ranger. I was destined and chosen by the stars to lead the team that would bring down the Universal. She told me of the Stars' plan to train me and then I would train all of you. But I would have a component that you do not. Etoile said to lead you I must be touched by the stars. She pressed her thumb to my forehead and I collapsed with all the knowledge she presented me with. Suddenly I knew about alien technology and politics. It was painful to gain all of that knowledge and I thought several times over that I was going to die. But eventually I got better—of course I did—and when I could finally open my eyes, I saw a new world. There were colors around people. I could hear thoughts. Now that faded over time, if I focus I can see auras still but only in the Star Chamber can I hear thoughts."

"Wait, wait, wait." Pat spoke up. "You've been listening to our thoughts this whole time?"

"Trust me Glean, I didn't want to. But the Star Chamber forces all of that sort of power into overdrive. I've tried to ignore it. That's why I always seemed so determined in my own training. You all would be a lot quieter when I was working on my own shit."

"What was your line?" JT asked. Taking the attention off of Pat. Good for JT. Pat just turned the other way and pouted.

"My line?"

"You know, you were born of the blank with the blank to blank blank. What Etoile told you when you got your power."

"Oh, of course, mine was 'Born of the bull with the determination to lead all up the mountain.'"

"Can you hear Etoile's thoughts too?" Felicia asked.

"Oh Lord no. I mean I haven't actually tried to read any aliens to see if I can just hear humans, but don't forget she's not just an alien. She is the voices of the stars. I think my mind would burn if I tried."

"Did you know?" Pat asked August.

"No." he shrugged, not really caring, which only bothered our second leader even more.

"And you don't care that your girlfriend has been listening in on our thoughts?"

"She wasn't my girlfriend then." He was still nonchalant. I'm starting to like the guy more and more. He wasn't putting up with shit and doing it in a dry sort of way. Basically exactly like me.

"Isn't she now? She can still hear them!"

"Dude, not what I meant. I mean when we're in the Star Chamber, the only place that she can hear voices—"

"So she claims."

"Pat. Cool it." William spoke up. He didn't even speak that loud, but suddenly everything seemed to go silent, the wind stopped and no animals around us were moving. It was the first time he spoke in the group, not even when Hannah introduced him did he say anything. I don't even know why we were so shocked, but no one seemed to be able to not just stare at him. No one disrespects a leader.

"Anyways." August was finally able to say. "My point was at the Star Chamber she's my leader Pat. She isn't just my girlfriend and I trust her, regardless of what she's done—or" he looked over at Sam. "who she brings on the team. She's already right about him obviously, so I trust her judgment."

"Here, here!" Laura said and then laughed like a seven year old. Of course we all had to as well, and popped the tension bubble around us.

"Thanks, Aug." Hannah said softly.

"Why did it happen? Did Etoile give you a reason or is this just a side effect of gaining the alien knowledge?" I asked, trying to change the subject back.

"I mean, she told me that it just happened because a special door opened in my brain to comprehend the information and when that happened it was like a gust of wind that opened a few more doors."

"So no real answer then."

"Literally none." I winced. I hate it when people use literally incorrectly. "It bothers me all the time. Auras are essentially useless, excluding yours, but they're still fun to make appear during classes. And if I could turn the mind reading on and off it might be useful in battle, but otherwise it'd just be chaotic. If I knew the reason why I have them it would be different. Maybe the stars know I'll need them in my future or something."

"Why are our auras not useless?" Adrian asked.

"I use them during battle to see if you guys are doing alright. The dimmer the aura the better I know I need to get you out of there. They were also how I knew to move forwards with your training with the elements, and especially without uniforms."

"So why not just tell us right away? Save yourself the trouble of all of this? Sure you can hear thoughts, but we could get through that."

"Sometimes I think everyone forgets that I'm a teenage girl. I got scared. Now that you guys have fought I know you aren't going to stop being a Ranger because you feel like you don't have any privacy."

"Umm…"

"Shut up William." She said rather harshly, then smiled showing that it was just a joke and once again, we laughed collectively. She also looked over at August as if she thought he would never have given her a chance if he knew how much of a freak she was.

"So what now?" Sam asked. "Are we just going to wait for the next fight and see who dies then? Always have a team of backups waiting?"

"No." Hannah said calmly. "Like I said before at the press conference: no one else will die because of this team. The only ones that will are the Universal and his stupid generals."

"Why are we so confident all of the sudden?" Anna asked.

"I'm developing things for us, so we won't be caught off guard again."

"Like what?"

"It's best not to say until they're finished, or we're in the Star Chamber."

"Then let's go." William said. "You know, to talk about that stuff. And I want to get my power."

"Then we'll go. Aug you take—" she faltered. "Take William with you." She was looking curiously behind August to Felicia. I think I was the only one to notice, she recovered so quickly anyone not paying attention or good at reading people would have thought she coughed or something. We checked around to make sure no one was around and we teleported.

There never seemed to be anyone around the overnight tree the few times that I've walked by. Maybe Hannah set something up here, but more likely it was just her tree and the power itself gave off an aura to dissuade anyone from coming near it, like the original Command Center did. I've been reading up on alien technology a lot and we have literally everything on the Earth Power Rangers imaginable. I know Hannah thinks that it's important to know the past Rangers and even their villains, but I wanted to know how, not who. How things were built, how did the suits keep us from getting really injured and all that good stuff. Which of course makes me so curious about what the hell Hannah was developing to help us with fighting and how I wanted to help her make it.

"Hey Jer, you can you know, I would love another pair of hands helping me." she realized what she did then tried to fix it "Sorry, I don't mean to read your thoughts. I'll try to not be so open about it."

"No! I don't mind. You should use what you have. I don't think you should hide the fact that you hear thoughts. It's the same with being smart really. You shouldn't care if people think you're better than them."

"I'm not. Better than them that is. Honestly I think this makes me significantly less human. I've come to terms though, really it's fine." Before I could say another word she turned off and went to the platform. "Etoile! We have William here!"

All eyes went to him, instead of where Etoile normally appears. We wanted to see how he would react to her. Unfortunately he didn't really do anything, he just raised his eyebrows. Damn unfeeling kid.

"Hello William. We are Etoile and even in light of the tragedy that brought you here we se that you are just as destined to be on this team as Rebecca was. Now, step up and claim your power." Then she did something odd as he stepped up to the platform. She put her thumb, which was glowing orange, on the center of his forehead and from that his helmet and suit formed, cascading down.

"William, though you are not born of the lion, you do truly posses a lion's heart and under Leo's guide you will find your true destiny. You are the Orange Leo Ranger and you command the mighty Leo sword." She stepped back, satisfied with once again having twelve members on the team.

"Wait Etoile!" August spoke up, like we all wanted to. "What about his element?"

"Unfortunately Cap, there is a draw back to not being chosen by the stars, William will command fire as well, but only when morphed. The suit has the power, but you do not."

William removed his helmet, even without anyone instructing him on the clasps on the sides. Smart kid. "I don't mind. I'm happy to help and just be a part of the team."

"A wonderful attitude to have William. We commend you for it."

"So this is great and emotional and all and William has a super attitude, but can we get back to fighting and training? I'm thinking Sim tournament. Who's in?" Sam grinned, clearly wanting to demonstrate his fighting superiority or whatever. I've grown to not mind him, being a fellow water user, but he can be such a stereotypical male.

With that being said, I'm totally going to kick his ass.

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Well? Thoughts? Tell me about them? Does the story suck? Tell me that too! I love hearing from you guys!


	18. Chapter 18: Felicia

So you guys know how I said I was going to write a lot more over the summer? Well that didn't happen. Apparently my muse is found only at school. Anyways, here is the long awaited chapter 18! please review!

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Felicia

No one hates tournaments, not even the people who think they can't fight. The rules are pretty simple, round one we battle with whatever minion the challenger choses and the level. Then whoever makes it through that will fight the others. Of course Hannah won the first time, but Patrick came in a close second. Sam wasn't even there for the first tournament, but I can see why he of all people would want to do one.

We were all excited and talking about this, it was exactly what we needed except for Will who said, "I'm going to sit out of this one. I don't even know how to use the power yet."

"Yeah no problem!" Hannah said. "Do you want someone to help you?"

"No I'm fine. I can do this on my own." I felt bad for him. We all loved Rebecca and it must be difficult to come into her position and try to act like he's not taking over and replacing her. I really didn't know her that well, but I did see how well she improved over the course of a few weeks as far as hand-to-hand goes. Of course that didn't save her in the end, but it just made me think of how it really could have been any of us.

"So, Shellshock, what'll it be?" Adrian asked.

"I'm thinking Tyranodrones, level five." He grinned.

"You sure? Even the great Tommy Oliver could barely handle them." Hannah said.

"Yeah so?"

"So you think _you _can?" she smirked, clearly just egging him on now.

"Please."

"Morphed or not?" August asked.

"Morphed for the preliminary then we go unmorphed every round after."

"Standard secondary conditions then?" Hannah asked next. "Knock down standards?"

"What are knock down standards?" Will asked.

"Just as they sound. As soon as your knocked off of your feet you're done."

Sam went down into the Sim room and said to the computer "Simulation box—tournament—engage!"

The box replied to him "Welcome Cancer, level of difficulty and challenger type?"

"Level five, Tyranodrones.."

"Engage level five of ten: Tyranodrone. Cancer directed tournament activated. Good luck Rangers." As per tradition, Sam went first. He who calls the tournament must go through it first.

The box doesn't come up wherever the person is like the regular Sim box, but it actually is the whole Sim room. We had to watch from the actual Star part of the Star Chamber. The reason was to cover all of our powers. Us air users and the fire ones didn't need a specific area, but the water and earth users did and they happened to be on opposite sides of the room. It provides more room for excitement too. We can run and jump around and just make a better show of things. The only way you could tell that a tournament was in progress was the addition of the giant timer on the far side of the Sim room. You get three minutes to take out you opponents in the first round.

Sam waited for us all to leave before he called out, "Align the Stars! Navy Cancer Ranger!" That was the final voice command for the Sim box to begin the tournament. We all watched in awe as Sam quickly took out his six Tyranodrones. The Sim box cuts the number of minions in half for tournaments, no one wants to be worn out after the first round.

After Sam passed in record time, even Hannah was impressed. His key to success was working out how the Tyranodrones, or just Drones, were defeated. They just need a good knock down then they're out. Laura went next. Normally it would have been the Leo, but since Will opted out, she was up. We went in order of the zodiacs, so I was last. That was both a good and a bad thing, it let me see where I might stand with the level five drones, and if I actually have a chance of making it to the next round.

In the end, Sam, Laura, Pat, August, JT, and Hannah all made it to the next round, which wasn't all that uncalled for. Laura was brilliant with her gymnastics moves, and Pat just kicks ass all the way around. August took advantage of having his ax while he could and JT is easily the strongest air uses and used it to keep the Drones off of him at all times, I could use that, if I don't get too weak from using all that power. Hannah of course is just the perfect Ranger, no surprise there.

As for the unlucky ones though, I think it was all a matter of confidence. Jerry just doesn't believe that he's a good fighter. He wants to be, and out in the field where it counts, he excels. But when we're just training he sells himself short. Klaus could have easily taken the Drones out with just his bow, he even called it up, but threw it aside at the last minute and tried to take them on hand-to-hand. I give him credit for that, but now isn't the time for practicing, you use your advantages in the Sim box. As soon as he got out of the Sim Room, he went straight to Will and offered to help him, which made me think he purposefully forfeited the tournament. Annie wasn't able to use water to help her. And her fin-slicers had her take out a few of the Drones, but it wasn't enough in the end and she had to call draw. Finally Adrian, I think he did the same thing at Klaus and purposefully lost the match, he could have easily killed with his laser.

But once Hannah got out of the Sim room, I was up. "Good luck" she said to me as she was taking off her helmet. That was another signal of if you passed or not, you demorphed if you were out and you just took your helmet off if you continued on. She was being completely sincere, but even our leader had a competitive edge in her voice, especially after coming off of the fighting high.

Like everyone else, I waited until entering the Sim Room to morph. I looked up at the glass window separating me from the rest of my team, and I was secretly happy that it wasn't two way. I couldn't see them judging me.

With that I morphed. It was the first time I did it on my own. When we went into battle for real I was with Patrick and so I didn't have to shout the call. What if I accidentally shouted "Align the planets"? Obviously the morph wouldn't take and I would look like an idiot, I was determined to not look like the ditzy Pink Ranger.

I took a deep breath then shouted "Align the Stars! Pink Gemini Ranger!" I felt even better than the normal morph, now I felt like I could take on all of the Meteor Riders in the universe, certainly a few stupid Tyranodrones. Which of course appeared as I was bursting with energy. "Twin Daggers!" I called before they attacked me. I sheathed them in my belt though, deciding to combine the two common strategies of weapon and element against them.

I decided that I needed to be original though and I couldn't just throw them around. Instead I had a sudden burst of creativity. As they were charging at me I formed balls of wind in my hands and began throwing them at the Drones. Immediately I regretted the plan, it only slowed down some of the Drones, two weren't even phased and rushed at me. Suddenly I threw my arms down and the balls of wind propelled me up off of the ground.

I was flying.

Well, levitating I guess. Flying means moving constantly or something but I was just floating on air, just out of reach of the Drones. I even let my wind balls go to see if I dropped.

I didn't. I had to assume that this was my extra power, like Annie and her healing, or Hannah and the plants. I loved it. And honestly it felt just like walking on the ground, only I could control how high I was. I figured that I could actually fly if I brought the wind balls back, but a growl from below me reminded me of the task at hand. I wasn't within the Drones reach, and they weren't alright with that, and was the Sim box clock.

I unsheathed my daggers and threw them at the two closest Drones, before dropping from the sky right on one's head. I guess that was all it took to knock one out because it disappeared right along with the other two. The clock warned me about thirty second being left, so I bolted to my daggers and threw them behind me, using the air to put extra spin on them, (they really are the perfect weapon for an air user) praying that they would hit at least one Drone. I struck two of them, thank god and ran at the last one before jumping into the air, using my new power to give me an extra boost and stuck my foot out at the Drone, nailing it right in the chest and it soared into the weight equipment.

"Round one cleared by Gemini Ranger" the computer voice spoke and I did several flips in the air out of celebration. When I finally calmed down, I powered down and entered the Star Chamber. They all there staring at me, most surprised excluding Hannah.

"Hey guys" I said finally. "I think I found my extra power."

"You definitely did Gem" Pat said. "Neither JT or I can make those balls of wind, or fly for that matter. We tried it out while you were in there."

"Well that's swell and all but can we move on to round two?" Sam asked impatiently.

"You could at least wait until the computer gives us an official bracket." Hannah pointed out. The next round is based off of the rank of the remaining Rangers. Being that there are seven of us, Hannah gets a bye because she's the leader.

The viewing screen pinged with the results, I would be fighting Laura first, then JT and August, followed by Pat and Sam. I'm looking forwards to watching the last one, I swear Pat hates Sam more than he even hates Hannah.

To be honest I thought I was going to win against Laura easily. I mean, I did just discover that I could fly, how could she beat me?

Apparently really easily.

I did the worst thing possible and assumed that just because I suddenly was able to fly that I couldn't be touched. I couldn't stay up in the air and still get Laura down, so I had to be cautious with my element. I still figured that I could easily beat her at hand to hand, even if she was a really good gymnast. So I was up in the air on the defensive more than I thought I would be. That is until a fucking tiger came out of no where and pinned me to the ground.

"Winner" the simulation room said, "Yellow Virgo Ranger." The tiger got off of my and began to shrink, turning back into Laura. As soon as she was back in her normal body, she went to help me up.

"Good show." I told her. "And here I was thinking that I was the only one who would find my extra today."

"Please we can't let you have all of the attention." She smiled at me as we reentered the Star Chamber to watch the next fight and have everyone congratulate Laura.

The fight between JT and August was surprisingly interesting. Each knew that the other could easily knock the other using their elements, so while August dug his feet into the ground to insure there wasn't any air under him, JT was constantly jumping in the air, trying to be on the ground as little as possible. In the end it was August who ended up winning, only because JT didn't have the ability to fly like I did, and August waited for the perfect moment to swipe the earth out from under JT just as he was landing. He then unleashed a large chunk of earth on top of JT so that he wouldn't be able to move. Neither one conveniently developed their extra power in that fight, mostly because they were both principles so they were extremely strong in their element, but nothing past that.

Then the fight everyone was holding their breath for: Pat and Sam. Honestly I think they both wanted to just hit each other for a little bit, because that was exactly what they did. No elements, no actual trying to knock the other over, just fists in the other's face.

"I bet they're feeling much better," JT leaned over and said to me. "Pat's been waiting for his opportunity to get at Sam." We both knew that, it wasn't like he wasn't telling us that all of the time. The Air users have the strongest bond, in my opinion, we're all friends and looking out for each other's backs equally. And naturally we talk to each other a lot.

"I think we all want to watch this just as much as they want to fight." I replied. "Who do you think will win?" honestly I had no idea. I think they're the most evenly matched pair in our group, and the highest skill wise too. Hannah is in a league of her own of course.

"Pat's going to pull the air out from under him, I know it."

"I don't know, Sam really has something to prove."

"Wanna bet?" JT wiggled his eyebrows.

"I do actually. A baking bet."

"What's a baking bet?" August asked, clearly interested, or just waiting to make a joke at our expense. It seemed like we had everyone's attention.

"Not that kind of baking." I shot at him before he could make the joke. "Loser has to bake the winner at least a dozen cookies of the winner's choice." I put my hand out to JT. "Deal?'"

"Deal." He said mischievously and took my hand. We all turned back to face the Sim room where Sam and Pat were still hitting it out. I had to put extra faith in my ex-boyfriend. From day one I knew that he would be a great Ranger. I was always on Hannah's side about that. I couldn't help but feel hurt when I saw Hannah leaning in August's arms as they were watching the fight. She had it easy in the dating department. Sure, she has to worry about her boyfriend dying, but at least she doesn't have to keep any secrets from him. Or dump him before a big fight because she doesn't want to worry him with the thought of a dead girlfriend.

"They're going to kill each other." Will said softly. "Is it a Ranger thing to let them kill each other or should we just stop the fight?" we all looked nervously at them. Neither of them were going to stop beating on the other, but we couldn't enter the Sim room until the fight was officially over.

"No worries," said Hannah, pushing out of August's embrace to be our leader. "Star Chamber, activate Simulation room timer for one minute."

"Taurus command recognized. Timer activated." The computer said in the Star Chamber, then in the Sim room: "One minute remaining until double elimination in tournament."

As soon as the computer spoke, both boys looked up at the wall at the clock, then back at each other, and almost immediately shot back from one another and—Pat fell backwards.

"Winner. Navy Cancer Ranger." Umm, what?

Sam strolled out of the Star Chamber without even bothering to help Pat up, and stopped in the doorway once he noticed all of our weird looks.

"What?" he asked.

"How the hell did that just happen?" Adrian asked him.

"See I saw that everyone was using their new extra fancy powers, or whatever, so I decided to do the same thing."

"And what exactly is your extra power?" Hannah asked him.

"Ice, ice baby." He answered coldly.

Then it all made sense. Pat didn't just fall, he slipped. That's why Sam was declared the winner, he mush have made the ice layer while they were fighting.

Pat came in right at that point and glared in Sam's direction.

"Hey Scales how's your vagina? You landed on it pretty hard." August bated him, never missing the opportunity to make a joke at anyone.

"Aug, shut up." Hannah said next to him and reached up to hit him lightly on the cheek. In response he leaned down and kissed her on hers. She rolled her eyes and said "I hate you" in a not serious voice.

"No you—" August was interrupted by Etoile coming out of the Star Chamber quickly.

"Rangers, why are you still here?"

"Should we not be here?" I asked, what we all were thinking.

"Do not let being a Power Ranger consume your lives. You still need to do all of your school work and such."

"Etoile does have a point guys." Hannah said slipping back into her 'I'm the leader so I guess I have to act like an adult, with just one glance at Etoile. "When was the last time you had a meal with your families?" Okay it had been a while, but I wanted to see who would end up winning the tournament. "We can resume the tournament tomorrow, Felicia." I must have made a weird face or something because almost immediately she realized that she read my mind. "Shit I'm sorry, I didn't mean to I swear."

Pat at that point was still annoyed with the tournament, then the reminder of Hannah's extra extra abilities and he just said, "See you guys later" before teleporting out.

"The rest of you should follow Libra's example." Etoile told us. And so, like the good Ranger I was. I said goodbye to everyone and teleported home.

I didn't care that it seemed mildly suspicious that Etoile rushed us out of there so suddenly, I didn't care that at just one look Hannah was agreeing to everything she said, I didn't even care that JT might forget our baking bet.

I was floating on air. Literally.


End file.
